Polyvalent Time A Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams Thesis Documentation Christopher Cheng 2020
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Polyvalent Time A Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams Thesis Documentation Christopher Cheng 2020
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This document contains a body of work submitted to the
Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design
from the 2019-2020 academic calendar in partial fulfillment of a
Bachelor of Architecture
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Table
of
Contents
This book is structured to support the proposition of the thesis. The intent is not to chronicle the growth of the work in a linear manner, but to reveal the polyvalent nature of: time, the project, and the process of design itself.
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Prologue
8 | 15
Acknowledgments
10 | 11
Abstract
12 | 15
P a r t 1 | T h e Q u e st i o n
16 | 33
Horology
18 | 23
Einstein’s Dreams
24 | 31
Polyvalence
32 | 33
P a r t 2 | The Project
34 | 113
Gasworks Park
36 | 43
The Horologium
44 | 55
The Watch Workshop
56 | 75
The Watchmaker’s Residence
76 | 93
The Horology Archive
94 | 113
The Polyvalence of Time
A Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams
P a r t 3 | T h e E x p lo r at i o n
114 | 139
Transgression
116 | 123
Tradition
124 | 129
Referents
130 | 139
A pp e n d i c e s
140 | 159
Layering Abstracts
142 | 149
Reflections
150 | 151
Text References
152 | 153
Online References
154 | 155
Image References
156 | 159
Understanding Time in Architecture
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00 Prologue
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Acknowledgments
This book is dedicated to those who have continuously helped me grow and develop over the course of my undergraduate career at Virginia Tech. I could not have become the designer + person I am today without their unwaivering expertise, guidance, and encouragement.
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Prologue | Acknowledgments
Andrew Cheng To my father: Thank you for introducing me to the world of design and for the incredible insight into architecture as a whole. Lynn Cheng To my mother: Thank you for your critical feedback and unwavering support. Alexander Cheng To my brother: Thank you for always picking up the phone and saying, “WHAT!?” You have always been an amazing inspiration and an incredible role model. T.C. Cheng To my grandfather: Thank you for the weekly support via FaceTime. Jeanne Cheng To my grandmother: Thank you for the weekly support and laughter via FaceTime. Hope Griffin To my grandmother: Thank you for taking an interest in my work and being a naive eye. Jimmy Griffin To my grandfather: Thank you for showing me the value of a hard day’s work. I miss you each and everyday. Angela Zhang To MDC: Thank you for always being at my side, and pushing me to trust in myself. Sudhansh Agrawal To my colleague: Thank you for being my best friend from 2nd year on, and for the many SUD catchphrases along the way. Marcos Borjas To my colleague: Thank you for being the best studio companion, for pushing me to explore and expand my boundaries each and every year. Neelofar Shaik To my colleague: Thank you for sitting behind me and having late-night conversations about thesis and life. Hilary Bryon To my primary advisor: Thank you for always pushing me to never settle and having more energy than I thought possible. It was a great year of growth and discovery. Aki Ishida To my secondary advisor: Thank you for valuable and timely critiques. Jim Bassett To my first year professor: Thank you for inspiring me to always search and teaching me that, “Sketchbook never stops.”
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Abstract
As expected, over the course of the academic year, the thesis evolved, moving from ideas of transgression, tradition, evolution, and referents, ultimately settling into polyvalence. The commonality of these topics is time, which is the overarching focus of the thesis.
“Architecture domesticates limitless space and enables us to inhabit it, but it should likewise domesticate endless time and enable us to inhabit the continuum of time.� 1
1. Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses
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Prologue | Abstract
15 May 2020 A Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams is guided by the engagement and materialization of time through architecture. The project is comprised of an interconnected, 3-part complex: a watch workshop, a watchmaker’s residence, and a horology archive. Together, the architectural settlement, programming, siting, materiality, and details embody different aspects of time. Here, Mechanical Time, Bodily Time, Fluid Time, and Natural Time constitute the array of temporal values in-forming the architecture and leading toward a polyvalent engagement with time. Four aspects of the relativity of time in architecture under consideration:
Mechanical Time This interpretation of time is rigid and unyielding, distancing itself from the influence of surrounding context or natural environments. It is predetermined by its unchanging, unyielding regularity, as opposed to the ambiguities and irregularities of bodily perception.
Bodily Time This interpretation of time is guided by bodily perception. Bodily Time engages the haptic body in space, filtering time as tactile reactions and visual impressions that can be anticipated but not controlled. It acts as a counterpart to Mechanical Time.
Fluid Time This is an interpretation of time as fluctuating, and relies on a building’s unique discourse with its natural environment. It focuses on anticipating nature’s varied forces as a means to create a kinetic architecture, synchronously fluctuating with each day, season, and year.
Natural Time This interpretation of time is cyclical, recognizing the inescapable reality that the sun will rise in the east and set in the west. Natural Time is directed by orientation and alignment to the arcs of the sun as a means to create an architecture rooted in its place.
Polyvalent (adj): Having many values, properties, or modes of action; Having multiple aspects or meanings; open to a number of different interpretations.
Abstract: Thesis Documentation By necessity of “going to press”, this is the final iteration of the thesis abstract. Over time, it is expected that its content will be re-interpreted, yet the broader ideas continue to provoke thoughts and architecture. 13
29 April 2020 A Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams is guided by the engagement and materialization of time through architecture. The project is comprised of an interconnected 3-part complex: a watch workshop, a watchmaker’s residence, and a horology archive. The architectural settlement, programming, siting, materiality, and details of each part embody different aspects of Mechanical Time, Bodily Time, Fluid Time, and Natural Time, constituting an architecture which allows one to construct a polyvalent understanding of time. Four aspects of the relativity of time in architecture were uncovered to develop this proposition.
Mechanical Time This interpretation of time is rigid and unyielding, distancing itself from the influence of surrounding context or natural environments. It is predetermined by its unchanging, unyielding regularity, removing the ambiguity and irregularity of bodily perception.
Bodily Time This interpretation of time is guided by bodily perception, acting as a counterpart to Mechanical Time. It engages the haptic body in space, understanding time as tactile reactions and visual impressions that can be anticipated but not controlled.
Fluid Time This is an interpretation of time as fluctuating, relying on a building’s unique discourse with its natural environment. It focuses on anticipating nature’s varied forces as means to create a kinetic architecture, synchronously fluctuating with each day, season, and year.
Natural Time This interpretation of time is cyclical, recognizing the inescapable fact that the sun will rise in the east and set in the west. It is directed by orientation and alignment to the arcs of the sun as a means to create an architecture rooted in its place.
Polyvalent (adj): Having many values, properties, or modes of action; Having multiple aspects or meanings; open to a number of different interpretations.
Abstract: Pella Prize Finalist Presentation This iteration of the thesis abstract was revised for the comprehension and viewing of students, faculty, and alumni during the Pella Prize presentations via Zoom. 14
Prologue | Abstract
22 April 2020 A Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams is guided by the engagement and materialization of time through architecture. The project is a complex of three interconnected programs: a watch workshop, a watchmaker’s residence, and an archive. This settlement and its programming, siting, materiality, and details embody four different conceptions of time and therefore construct its polyvalent nature.
Mechanical Time is rigid and unyielding, distancing itself from the influence of surrounding context and the ambiguity and irregularity of bodily perception.
Bodily Time is guided by bodily perception, engaging the haptic body in space, understanding time as tactile reactions and visual impressions that can be anticipated but not controlled.
Fluid Time is variable and fluctuating, relying on a building’s unique discourse with its natural environment as a means to create a kinetic architecture, synchronously fluctuating with each day.
Natural Time is cyclical, directed by orientation and alignment to the arcs of the sun as a means to create an architecture rooted in its place.
Abstract: 160 Word Nominee Presentation This iteration of the thesis abstract was edited and revised for word count and verbal clarity for presentation to a+d faculty in their nomination process meeting. 15
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01 P a r t 1 | T h e Q u e st i o n
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Horology
Horology (n): The art or science of measuring time; the construction of horologes. The origins of horology are linked to architecture. The built environment constituted the first means to measure astrological movement and embody its cultural significance. Architectural precedents, such as the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, and the Tower of the Winds, operated as time-telling cultural devices, utilizing varied means of part to whole relationships to record the location of the sun, moon, and stars; such as relative scale, orientation, triangulation, and positioning of constituent parts. With the influence of the scientific revolution on both architecture and horology, this connection has become less evident. Scientific measurement favors autonomous devices of systematic, numeric precision to track time. This thesis seeks to rebuild the connection between architecture and horology, supporting a plural conception of time through an architectural construct.
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The Question | Horology
Traditional watchmaker workshops were long and linear buildings utilized for the design and crafting of timepieces, like watches and clocks.
The Tower of the Winds acts as a monument to the winds, as well as a sundial, and water clock.
Stonehenge is oriented to frame and embody the winter solstice sunset and summer solstice sunrise.
The Pyramids of Giza use relative scale, orientation, and geometry to culturally and functionally demarcate the sun and its path.
The sundial is a form of astrological measurement.
The hourglass is a form of metered measurement.
The pocket watch is a form of mechanical measurement.
Evolving Disciplines Architecture was once a poetic assemblage devoted to measuring and cultivating time, yet with the advent of modern technology the relationship between building and horology was been limited to accommodating the design and manufacture of timepieces, i.e.: workshops and factories. 19
The Pomander Watch 1511
The Mechanical Clock 1275
The introduction of the coiled mainspring eliminated the need for hanging weights, allowing smaller, lighter and portable timepieces.
The introduction of the first escapement wheel, the verge and foliot mechanism. This balance wheel generates a steady rhythm, restricting the movement of gears in equal jumps from cog to cog.
The Clepsydra 3000 BC
The Hourglass 1000
The sun is used as the primary means to measure time. 12 hours of the day are determined through the location of the shadow along the arc.
Technological upgrades allow for refined machinery and tools to manufacture even slimmer profiles, leading to the first wristwatch for the Queen of Naples. The Pocket Watch 1675 With a new fashion trend and the introduction of a glass face, the portable watch becomes a luxurious item, which was somewhat imprecise.
The ‘water clock’ which measures more specific amounts of time through a steady flow of water transferring from one container to another; adding an increased level of precision to timekeeping.
The Sundial 3500 BC
The Chronograph 1816
The ‘sandglass’ utilized similar principles to the clepsydra, replacing the water with sand. Two glass bulbs formed a narrow passage through which a calculated amount of sand would funnel through in a given amount of time. Often used for maritime purposes. The Pendulum Clock 1656 The pendulum clock becomes the first harmonic oscillator. The discovery of isochronism, allowed the pendulum to increase precision of the clock from 15 minutes to 15 second over the course of a day, allowing for the introduction of the minute hand.
The Portable Drum Watch 1524
The Railroad W 1853
The introduction of screws into the watch assembly allows for a slimmer profile, creating the ‘pendant clock’ which is worn around the neck. The Lever Escapement 1759 Early pocket watches were often inaccurate by hours in a day. With the addition of the lever escapement there is an increase in precision of the pocket watch and the minute and second hands can be added.
The Evolution of Horology The means and methods of measuring time have evolved over thousands of years, from simple stone constructs to wrist-sized computers. This evolution is a result of material and technological advancements which increased precision yet decreased qualitative appreciation. 20
The Question | Horology
Marraud & Lund watches for the RR. This is the ‘standard time’ f to prevent co inaccurate time
The Automatic Watch 1928 Responding to the issue of hand winding watches, John Harwood designs a wristwatch which transfers the energy from the movement of the hands into changing mechanisms, allowing for 12 hours of movement. The self-winding watch is created.
The Wristwatch 1868 Technological upgrades allow for refined machinery and tools to manufacture even slimmer profiles, leading to the first wristwatch for the Countess Koscowicz of Hungary by Patek Phillipe.
The LED Display 1970 Hamilton produces the Pulsar, a quartz movement watch with a new LED display.
The Grandmaster Chime 2015 Despite both the quartz and smartwatch revolutions, mechanical movement has returned to prominence continuing the traditions of timepiece craft.
The Battery-Operated Watch 1960 Bulova introduces it’s first battery operated (quartz) timepiece which replaces the mechanical escapement with the electronic tuning fork regulator. This increases precision and overall size.
The Smartwatch 1994
Timex introduces the Datalink, capable of downloading information from a computer, logging dates, and scheduling reminders.
Watch
The Atomic Clock 1949
The Swatch 1983
d produce pocket Vermont Central first attempt at for transportation ollisions due to epieces. The Cartier Tank 1919
The NBS creates the most precise time measurement device utilizing an electronic transition frequency. This leads to the implementation of a primary standard for international timekeeping.
In response to the quartz revolution, Swiss watchmakers develop an inexpensive Swissmade quartz watch. This transitioned the focus from mechanical to quartz timepieces in Switzerland.
Inspired by the FT-17 light tank, Louis Cartier creates a wristwatch that incorporates the leather strap for the soldier following World War 1.
The Apple Watch 2015 The Quartz Watch 1969 With the introduction of quartz as a power source, Seiko mass produces it’s first quartz watch at a fraction of the cost of a mechanical watch.
The smartwatch takes a leap, moving the smartphone to an aluminum casing on the wrist. Housing a rechargeable battery, bluetooth, and swappable bands, the primary function is no longer to measure time.
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Astrological Measurement | Natural Time
Metered Measurement | Fluid Time
The earliest measurement of time utilized the location of the sun, moon, and stars. These early constructs aligned themselves to the cardinal directions and measured shadows cast by the sun through the use of part to whole relationships.
The next step in the evolution of timekeeping was the development of methods that worked without the sun. Through the fluid movement of a given medium water clocks, candle clocks, and hourglasses could measure time with scientific accuracy.
Measurement Techniques The history of horology offers insight into the discourse between buildings and time, highlighting the increasing quantification of time. However, horology is the study and measurement of time, it encompasses time from quantities to qualities. 22
The Question | Horology
Mechanical Measurement | Mechanical Time Pendulums, springs, escapements, and gears created the most precise measurement of time. Mechanical measurement was highly regulated, increasing accuracy down to the second.
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Einstein’s Dreams
Written by Alan Lightman in 1993, this assembly of fictional stories imagines Einstein’s life relative to different conceptions of time, or temporal worldviews. Related to Albert Einstein’s real history while working in a patent office in Switzerland in 1905, the worlds offered by Lightman challenge a singular, universal understanding of time. The book presents 30 short stories, each exploring a world in which time is understood and experienced in a different capacity. From these 30, three worlds, encompassing four conceptions of time, were discovered to bridge the connection between horology and architecture: Mechanical Time, Bodily time, Fluid time, and Natural Time.
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The Question | Einstein’s Dreams
Mechanical Time is derived from a world in which there are two times, mechanical and bodily, a world in which people do not believe that both can coexist.
Bodily Time is derived from a world in which there are two times, mechanical and bodily, a world in which people do not believe that both can coexist.
Fluid Time is derived from a world in which time is perceived like the flow of water, allowing people to experience time displacement.
Natural Time is derived from a world in which time is perceived as absolute, where time is unrelenting. Here, every second has uniform value and time marches to an unstoppable, repeated cadence.
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M e ch a n i c a l + B o d i l y T i m e
Mechanical Time is rigid and unyielding, distancing itself from the influence of surrounding context or natural environments. It is predetermined by its unchanging, unyielding regularity, as opposed to the ambiguities and irregularities of bodily perception. Bodily Time is guided by bodily perception. Bodily Time engages the haptic body in space, filtering time as tactile reactions and visual impressions that can be anticipated but not controlled. It acts as a counterpart to Mechanical Time.
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The Question | Einstein’s Dreams
24 April 1905 “In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical
They know that the body is not a thing of wild magic,
time and there is body time. The first is as rigid and
but a collection of chemicals, tissues, and nerve
metallic as a massive pendulum of iron that swings
impulses. Thoughts are no more than electrical surges
back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
in the brain. Sexual arousal is no more than a flow of
The second squirms and wriggles like a bluefish in
chemicals to certain nerve endings. Sadness no more
a bay. The first is unyielding, predetermined. The
than a bit of acid transfixed in the cerebellum. In
second makes up its mind as it goes along. Many are
short, the body is a machine, subject to the same laws
convinced that mechanical time does not exist. When
of electricity and mechanics as an electron or clock.
they pass the giant clock on the Kramgasse they do
As such, the body must be addressed in the language
not see it; nor do they hear its chimes while sending
of physics. And if the body speaks, it is the speaking
packages on Postgasse or strolling between flowers in
only of so many levers and forces. The body is a thing
the Rosengarten. They wear watches on their wrists,
to be ordered, not obeyed. Taking the night air along
but only as ornaments or as courtesies to those who
the river Aare, one sees evidence for two worlds in
would give timepieces as gifts. They do not keep clocks
one. A boatman gauges his position in the dark by
in their houses. Instead, they listen to their heartbeats.
counting seconds drifted in the water’s current. “One,
They feel the rhythms of their moods and desires. Such
three meters. Two, six meters. Three, nine meters.”
people eat when they are hungry, go to their jobs at
His voice cuts through the black in clean and certain
the millinery or the chemist’s whenever they wake from
syllables. Beneath a lamppost on the Nydegg Bridge,
their sleep, make love all hours of the day. Such people
two brothers who have not seen each other for a year
laugh at the thought of mechanical time. They know
stand and drink and laugh. The bell of St. Vincent’s
that time moves in fits and starts. They know that time
Cathedral sings ten times. In seconds, lights in the
struggles forward with a weight on its back when they
apartments lining Schifflaube wink out, in a perfect
are rushing an injured child to the hospital or bearing
mechanized response, like the deductions of Euclid’s
the gaze of a neighbor wronged. And they know too
geometry. Lying on the riverbank, two lovers look up
that time darts across the field of vision when they are
lazily, awakened from a timeless sleep by the distant
eating well with friends or receiving praise or lying in
church bells, surprised to find that night has come.
the arms of a secret lover. Then there are those who
Where the two times meet, desperation. Where the
think their bodies don’t exist. They live by mechanical
two times go their separate ways, contentment. For,
time. They rise at seven o’clock in the morning. They
miraculously, a barrister, a nurse, a baker can make a
eat their lunch at noon and their supper at six. They
world in either time, but not in both times. Each time
arrive at their appointments on time, precisely by the
is true, but the truths are not the same.”
clock. They make love between eight and ten at night. They work forty hours a week, read the Sunday paper on Sunday, play chess on Tuesday nights. When their stomach growls, they look at their watch to see if it is time to eat. When they begin to lose themselves in a concert, they look at the clock above the stage to see when it will be time to go home.
Deriving Mechanical and Bodily Time This chapter of the book describes a reality in which two times exist, mechanical and bodily time, offering the idea of a duality and simultaneity between the two. 27
Fluid Time
Fluid Time is an interpretation of time as fluctuating and relies on a building’s unique discourse with its natural environment. It focuses on anticipating nature’s varied forces as a means to create a kinetic architecture, synchronously fluctuating with each day, season, and year.
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The Question | Einstein’s Dreams
16 April 1905 “In this world, time is like a flow of water, occasionally
and this place and now attempting to be invisible in
displaced by a bit of debris, a passing breeze. Now
her darkened spot at no. 22 Kramgasse, knows the
and then, some cosmic disturbance will cause a
Klausen story and a thousand other stories waiting
rivulet of time to turn away from the mainstream, to
to unfold, dependent on the births of children, the
make connection backstream. When this happens,
movement of people in the streets, the songs of birds
birds, soil, people caught in the branching tributary
at certain moments, the precise position of chairs,
find themselves suddenly carried to the past. Persons
the wind. She crouches in the shadows and does not
who have been transported back in time are easy to
return the stares of people. She crouches and waits
identify. They wear dark, indistinct clothing and walk
for the stream of time to carry her back to her own
on their toes, trying not to make a single sound, trying
time. When a traveler from the future must talk, he
not to bend a single blade of grass. For they fear that
does not talk but whimpers. He whispers tortured
any change they make in the past could have drastic
sounds. He is agonized. For if he makes the slightest
consequences for the future. Just now, for example,
alteration in anything, he may destroy the future. At
such a person is crouching in the shadows of the
the same time, he is forced to witness events without
arcade, at no. 19 Kramgasse. An odd place for a
being part of them, without changing them. He envies
traveler from the future, but there she is. Pedestrians
the people who live in their own time, who can act
pass, stare, and walk on. She huddles in a corner,
at will, oblivious of the future, ignorant of the effects
then quickly creeps across the street and cowers in
of their actions. But he cannot act. He is an inert
another darkened spot, at no. 22. She is terrified
gas, a ghost, a sheet without soul. He has lost his
that she will kick up dust, just as a Peter Klausen is
personhood. He is an exile of time. Such wretched
making his way to the apothecary on Spitalgasse this
people from the future can be found in every village
afternoon of 16 April 1905. Klausen is something of
and every town, hiding under the eaves of buildings, in
a dandy and hates to have his clothes sullied. If dust
basements, under bridges, in deserted fields. They are
messes his clothes, he will stop and painstakingly
not questioned about coming events, about future
brush them off, regardless of waiting appointments.
marriages, births, finances, inventions, profits to be
If Klausen is sufficiently delayed, he may not buy the
made. Instead, they are left alone and pitied.”
ointment for his wife, who has been complaining of leg aches for weeks. In that case, Klausen’s wife, in a bad humor, may decide not to make the trip to Lake Geneva. And if she does not go to Lake Geneva on 23 June 1905, she will not meet a Catherine d’Épinay walking on the jetty of the east shore and will not introduce Mlle. d’Épinay to her son Richard. In turn, Richard and Catherine will not marry on 17 December 1908, will not give birth to Friedrich on 8 July 1912. Friedrich Klausen will not be father to Hans Klausen on 22 August 1938, and without Hans Klausen the European Union of 1979 will never occur. The woman from the future, thrust without warning into this time
Deriving Fluid Time This chapter of the book describes a reality in which time is like the flow of water, sometimes disrupted by events or memories that carry one back in time. 29
Natural Time
Natural Time is cyclical, recognizing the inescapable reality that the sun will rise in the east and set in the west. Natural Time is directed by orientation and alignment to the arcs of the sun as a means to create an architecture rooted in its place.
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The Question | Einstein’s Dreams
28 April 1905 “One cannot walk down an avenue, converse with a
Her administrator, a heavily oiled and grotesque lady,
friend, enter a building, browse beneath the sandstone
came in one morning and told her to clear out her
arches of an old arcade without meeting an instrument
desk by the following day. The friend in the shop listens
of time. Time is visible in all places. Clock towers,
quietly, neatly folds the tablecloth she has purchased,
wristwatches, church bells divide years into months,
picks lint off the sweater of the woman who has
months into days, days into hours, hours into seconds,
just lost her job. The two friends agree to meet for
each increment of time marching after the other in
tea at ten o’clock the next morning. Ten o’clock.
perfect succession. And beyond any particular clock,
Seventeen hours and fifty-three minutes from this
a vast scaffold of time, stretching across the universe,
moment. The woman who has just lost her job smiles
lays down the law of time equally for all. In this world,
for the first time in days. In her mind she imagines
a second is a second is a second. Time paces forward
the clock on the wall in her kitchen, ticking off each
with exquisite regularity, at precisely the same velocity
second between now and tomorrow at ten, without
in every corner of space. Time is an infinite ruler. Time
interruption, without consultation. And a similar clock
is absolute. Every afternoon, the townspeople of
in the home of her friend, synchronized. At twenty
Berne convene at the west end of Kramgasse. There,
minutes to ten tomorrow morning, the woman will
at four minutes to three, the Zytgloggeturm pays
put on her scarf and her gloves and her coat and
tribute to time. High on the turret of the tower clowns
walk down the Schifflaube, past the Nydegg Bridge
dance, roosters crow, bears play fife and drum, their
and on to the tea shop on Postgasse. Across town,
mechanical movements and sounds synchronized
at fifteen minutes before ten, her friend will leave her
exactly by the turning of gears, which, in turn, are
own house on Zeughausgasse and make her way to
inspired by the perfection of time. At three o’clock
the same place. At ten o’clock they will meet. They will
precisely, a massive bell chimes three times, people
meet at ten o’clock. A world in which time is absolute
verify their watches and then return to their offices on
is a world of consolation. For while the movements
Speichergasse, their shops on Marktgasse, their farms
of people are unpredictable, the movement of time
beyond the bridges on the Aare. Those of religious faith
is predictable. While people can be doubted, time
see time as the evidence for God. For surely nothing
cannot be doubted. While people brood, time skips
could be created perfect without a Creator. Nothing
ahead without looking back. In the coffeehouses, in
could be universal and not be divine. All absolutes are
the government buildings, in boats on Lake Geneva,
part of the One Absolute. And wherever absolutes,
people look at their watches and take refuge in time.
so too time. Thus the philosophers of ethics have
Each person knows that somewhere is recorded the
placed time at the center of their belief. Time is the
moment she was born, the moment she took her first
reference against which all actions are judged. Time is
step, the moment of her first passion, the moment
the clarity for seeing right and wrong. In a linen shop
she said goodbye to her parents.”
on Amthausgasse, a woman talks with her friend. She has just lost her job. For twenty years she worked as a clerk in the Bundeshaus, recording debates. She has supported her family. Now, with a daughter still in school and a husband who spends two hours each morning on the toilet, she has been fired.
Deriving Natural Time This chapter of the book describes a reality in which time is inescapable. In this reality time is predictable and evident similarly in all places without exception. 31
Polyvalence
Polyvalent (adj): Having many values, properties, or modes of action; Having multiple aspects or meanings; open to a number of different interpretations. The concept of polyvalence appears in T.S. Eliot’s essay, “Tradition and the Individual Talent”. Time, according to Eliot, is an historical sense, building upon the idea that time cannot be understood as a singular entity. Through his interpretation of time, there is a simultaneity of multiple meanings, creating the idea that any one conception is comprehended relative to a collective understanding. The past is only understood through the present and inversely, the present through the past. The result of this mode of thinking firmed up the legitimacy of asserting that four conceptions of time not only do, but should coexist simultaneously in an architectural context, and thus provide a deeper understanding of each value individually and relatively, through the collective. Architect Juhani Pallasmaa builds on this, asserting that a plural conception of time makes an architect “acutely conscious of his place in time, of his own contemporaneity” and so connecting the present and the past.
“...the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional. And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his own contemporaneity.” 2
2. T.S. Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent
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The Question | Polyvalence
Bodily Fluid
Mechanical
Natural
Bodily Fluid
Mechanical
Natural
Bodily Fluid
Mechanical
Natural
Constructing Polyvalence Architecture has the capacity to connect to various conceptions of time, embodying a polyvalent understanding of time.
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02 Part 2 | The Project
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Gasworks Park
Gasworks Park is located on the North Lake Union peninsula, in the Freemont neighborhood of Seattle. The site has a rich history and long lineage of re-use, formerly taking forms as a fishing village, trash dump, gasification plant, and public park. The site’s industrial past is still present in the re-purposed towers, stacks, pipes, and sheds dotting the landscape. These industrial remnants reflect the site’s former manufacturing programs and processes, acting as physical vestiges of time. Currently, the site acts as a public park, showcasing both the history of the site and the Seattle skyline. The close proximity to Lake Union allows for unobstructed sunlight from all four cardinal directions, creating an ideal situation for the Horologium. The proposed project aims to extend Gasworks temporal condition, becoming the present phase in a long line of evolution.
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The Project | Gasworks Park
Lake Union
Puget Sound
Selecting the Site Located northeast of downtown Seattle, Gasworks was selected for its diverse history and proximity to Lake Union and the city center. The large footprint of the park offers a unique opportunity to develop the project without eliminating existing functions. 37
The site was transformed into a gasification plant in 1937, creating synthetic gas from crude oil. The process was very detrimental to the lake and land.
The plant was closed in 1956 due to public health concerns. The city of Seattle purchased the site for redevelopment.
Industrial Site The industrial heritage of the site led to contamination from tar, coke, chemicals, and explosives. Ultimately, the introduction of natural gas forced the Washington Natural Gas Company to close the coal gasification plant. Polluted land was remediated or closed to the public. 38
The Project | Gasworks Park
RHA, Master Plan: In 1970 Richard Haag and Associates (RHA) proposed a redevelopment plan for the site as a public park utilizing the existing cracking towers as notable remnants from its industrial past.
RHA Proposal, Rendering: RHA’s proposal was approved by the city in 1972, ushering in a new stage in the site’s evolution. Gasworks Park became one of the first projects in the world to celebrate industrial preservation.
Landscape Redevelopment Richard Haag’s proposal integrated the industrial past with the public park functions, generating a layered experience of time on the site.
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Arrival of Settlers 1880
Future Public Park 1903
City of Seattle Purchase 1956
The Olmsted Brothers propose plans to have a public park on the 20 acre North Lake Union peninsula.
The City of Seattle purchases the site from Washington Natural Gas Company, paying the first of 10 yearly installments of $133,000.
Settlers begin to arrive in the area, signaling the first major
Fishing Village Pre-1880 The site is utilized as a place for fishing due to its proximity to Lake Union.
Gasification Plant Conversion 1937 The gasification plant is converted to manufacture synthetic gas from crude oil. The plant begins polluting the
Garbage Site 1890
Natural Gas 1956
The site is utilized as a garbage dump. Garbage is burned on site until 1905.
The coal gasification plant closes with the introduction of natural gas. The site is abandoned and fenced off to avoid issues with the polluted ground.
Gasification Plant 1906 The Washington Natural Gas Company builds a gasification plant on site due to its proximity to Lake Union; extracting illuminating gas from coal. This gas was used for lighting, heating, and cooking for the city of Seattle.
Richard (RHA) 1970
The industrial remnants of Gasworks offer insight into the site’s former manufacturing programs and processes, acting as physical vestiges of time. Gasworks underlines the question as to how traditions of place might lead to an understanding of multiple conceptions of time. The Project | Gasworks Park
The Seat unanimous master p program Park’. It project to
Haag
Associa
RHA is commissioned prepare a master plan/ analysis for a potential pu park on site. Haag wants retain existing structu starting the next stage evolution.
The Evolution of Gasworks
40
RHA Prop 1972
posal Approved
ttle City Council sly approves the plan, concept and for ‘Gas Works will be the first integrate industrial
ates
to /site ublic s to ures, of
Gas Works Park Opens 1975
Photovoltaics 2010
The park opens to the public, incorporating re-purposed structures as structural objects, play areas and a massive contouring of the site.
The play barn roof is covered with photovoltaic panels, furthering the development of the park.
Landmark Status 1999 The park receives City of Seattle Historic Landmark Status.
Construction Begins 1973
Tower 1 2002
The process of bioremediation of oil-soaked soil is invented and the city of Seattle owns the site, marking the beginning of construction. The polluted soil is piled up and covered, created ‘Kite Hill’.
The southern existing towers is inspected for structural integrity. Following the evaluation, the tower passes inspection and can remain as existing on site.
Analemmatic Sundial 1978 Charles Greening and Kim Lazare complete a 28’ diameter, interactive sundial on the top of Kite Hill.
National Historic Place 2013 Gas Works Park receives National Historic Place Registration. It is the first industrial preservation project to receive this distinction.
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Siting the Project The western third of the site offers great opportunity for current development, building upon the adjacent industrial and recreational aspects of the site. The horologium aims to add another temporal dimension. 42
The Project | Gasworks Park
43
The Horologium
A horologium is understood to be anything that has the capacity to measure time. It is not necessarily a singular object, or in an architectural context, a singular building. Architectural precedents show that part to whole relationships have been used in architectural constructs to relate to complex aspects of time through relative scale, orientation, and positioning. Drawing from such a lineage found in buildings, the Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams is portioned into three constituent parts so as to offer varied contexts and scales for studying and embodying different conceptions of time through varied architectural means. The part to whole articulation also allows for meta-scales of time to be interpreted despite engaging different aspects of time at discrete intervals. The project is comprised of an interconnected, three-part complex: a watch workshop, a watchmaker’s residence, and a horology archive. Together, the architectural settlement, programming, siting, materiality, and details embody different aspects of time. Here, Mechanical Time, Bodily Time, Fluid Time, and Natural Time constitute the array of temporal values in-forming the architecture and leading toward a polyvalent temporal presence.
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The Project | The Horologium
A Workshop
A design and craft space engages the duality of Mechanical Time and Bodily Time, juxtaposing predetermined spatial composition with an ambiguous program. The workshop is proportioned to the scale of the human body, taken to be 6 feet, highlighting the rhythms and flows of a body at work. Through the use of material, proportion, and repetition, the building emphasizes the irregularities of a watchmaker throughout the day, materializing a sense of Bodily Time in the creation/understanding of Mechanical Time.
A Watch Workshop The watch workshop is guided primarily by conceptions of Mechanical Time and Bodily Time. The sketch suggests a space proportioned by the scale of the human body, taken to be six feet. This dimension orders the space in both plan and section. This rigid proportioning system highlights the movement of the body functioning in space. 45
A Workshop
design and craft space engages the duality of Mechanical Time and Bodily Time, juxtaposing predetermined spatial composition with an ambiguous program. The workshop is oportioned to the scale of the human body, taken to be 6 feet, highlighting the rhythms and flows of a body at work. Through the use of material, proportion, and repetition, the building emphasizes the irregularities of a watchmaker throughout the day, materializing a sense of Bodily Time in the creation/understanding of Mechanical Time.
A Residence
he home of the master watchmaker embraces the idea of Fluid Time, deconstructing the traditional ‘house’ into three fluctuating components: living, working, and observation. he residence is designed to celebrate and harness nature as a means to create a kinetic architecture, fluctuating as the day does. Through the relationships to gravity, wind, water, and the ritualization of everyday life, the building provides opportunities to “make a connection backstream” in time, creating a simultaneity of the timeless and the temporal.
A Watchmaker’s Residence The residence for a watchmaker frames an understanding of Fluid Time through relationships to water, wind, gravity, as well as quotidian living. The building’s kinetic presence is manipulated by the occupant and the natural elements, leaving trace memories throughout a day. 46
The Project | The Horologium
A Residence The home of the master watchmaker embraces the idea of Fluid Time, deconstructing the traditional ‘house’ into three fluctuating components: living, working, and observation. The residence is designed to celebrate and harness nature as a means to create a kinetic architecture, fluctuating as the day does. Through the relationships to gravity, wind, water, and the ritualization of everyday life, the building provides opportunities to “make a connection backstream” in time, creating a simultaneity of the timeless and the temporal.
An Archive A collection of volumes dedicated to horology are held within a space designed to presence the idea of Natural Time, recalling the cyclical nature of both time and knowledge. The archive is a place that accepts the truth that time is inescapable, that time is an infinite ruler, and that time is absolute. It contains a collective history, a written/built record that is the means to communicate across time, embodying the summative knowledge of horology and the art of building. Through the use of material, solar alignment, and omnipresent light, the archive acknowledges and builds upon an existing lineage, becoming a repository for and over time.
A Horology Archive The horology archive embraces an idea of Natural Time relative to the cyclical nature of time and knowledge. The sketch suggests a space that is organized around an orientation to the sun. The collection of books arranged around the perimeter leave the central space dedicated to marking the sun’s movement. 47
A design and craft space engages the duality of Mechanical Time and B proportioned to the scale of the human body, taken to be 6 feet, highlig building emphasizes the irregularities of a watchmaker througho
A Workshop A design and craft space engages the duality of Mechanical Time and Bodily Time, juxtaposing predetermined spatial composition with an ambiguous program. The workshop is proportioned to the scale of the human body, taken to be 6 feet, highlighting the rhythms and flows of a body at work. Through the use of material, proportion, and repetition, the building emphasizes the irregularities of a watchmaker throughout the day, materializing a sense of Bodily Time in the creation/understanding of Mechanical Time.
A Workshop
The home of the master watchmaker embraces the idea of Fluid Time, The residence is designed to celebrate and harness nature as a means to and the ritualization of everyday life, the building provides opportunit
A Residence The home of the master watchmaker embraces the idea of Fluid Time, deconstructing the traditional ‘house’ into three fluctuating components: living, working, and observation. The residence is designed to celebrate and harness nature as a means to create a kinetic architecture, fluctuating as the day does. Through the relationships to gravity, wind, water, and the ritualization of everyday life, the building provides opportunities to “make a connection backstream” in time, creating a simultaneity of the timeless and the temporal.
Part to Whole
The three programmatic volumes are distributed across the site from north to south, offering individual presence of each of the four conceptions of time. The constituent parts are sited in a linear manner but are not expected to be experienced in a particular order. The whole and its parts A collection of volumes dedicated to horology are held within a space d stand relationally as well as autonomously. archive is a place that accepts the truth that time is inescapable, that tim 48
The Project | The Horologium
the means to communicate across time, embodying the summative kno light, the archive acknowledges and b
proportioned to the scale of the human body, taken to be 6 feet, highlighting the rhythms and flows of a body at work. Through the use of material, proportion, and repetition, the building emphasizes the irregularities of a watchmaker throughout the day, materializing a sense of Bodily Time in the creation/understanding of Mechanical Time.
A Residence The home of the master watchmaker embraces the idea of Fluid Time, deconstructing the traditional ‘house’ into three fluctuating components: living, working, and observation. The residence is designed to celebrate and harness nature as a means to create a kinetic architecture, fluctuating as the day does. Through the relationships to gravity, wind, water, and the ritualization of everyday life, the building provides opportunities to “make a connection backstream” in time, creating a simultaneity of the timeless and the temporal.
A Workshop
Bodily Time, juxtaposing predetermined spatial composition with an ambiguous program. The workshop is ghting the rhythms and flows of a body at work. Through the use of material, proportion, and repetition, the out the day, materializing a sense of Bodily Time in the creation/understanding of Mechanical Time.
An Archive A collection of volumes dedicated to horology are held within a space designed to presence the idea of Natural Time, recalling the cyclical nature of both time and knowledge. The archive is a place that accepts the truth that time is inescapable, that time is an infinite ruler, and that time is absolute. It contains a collective history, a written/built record that is the means to communicate across time, embodying the summative knowledge of horology and the art of building. Through the use of material, solar alignment, and omnipresent light, the archive acknowledges and builds upon an existing lineage, becoming a repository for and over time.
A Residence
deconstructing the traditional ‘house’ into three fluctuating components: living, working, and observation. o create a kinetic architecture, fluctuating as the day does. Through the relationships to gravity, wind, water, ties to “make a connection backstream” in time, creating a simultaneity of the timeless and the temporal.
An Archive
designed to presence the idea of Natural Time, recalling the cyclical nature of both time and knowledge. The me is an infinite ruler, and that time is absolute. It contains a collective history, a written/built record that is owledge of horology and the art of building. Through the use of material, solar alignment, and omnipresent builds upon an existing lineage, becoming a repository for and over time.
49
A Workshop
Siting the Parts The project is built up with intrinsic relationships within each building, but also establishes external relationships across the site. The existing circulation on site determines the general placement of the settlement to maintain access to the existing park functions. 50
The Project | The Horologium
51
Understanding the Whole The layering of the existing conditions, solar alignments, circulation, and topographic conditions inform the relationship between the three buildings, underpinning temporal conditions at the scale of a building and scale of the complex. These four points are established as anchors when siting the Horologium on Gasworks, constraining relative distance and scale. 52
The Project | The Horologium
53
The Complex The three programs engage a range of scales, from small to large, forming a larger whole which is connected not through physical means, but through interweaving multiple conceptions of time. The individual parts, as well as the whole, engage various aspects of time. 54
The Project | The Horologium
55
T h e W a t ch W o r k s h o p
The workshop houses design, craft, and manufacture spaces that primarily engages the duality of Mechanical Time and Bodily Time, juxtaposing predetermined spatial composition with a variable program. The workshop building is proportioned to the scale of the human body, taken to be six feet, highlighting the rhythms and flows of a body at work. Through the use of material, proportion, and repetition, the building emphasizes the irregularities of watchmakers throughout a day, materializing a sense of Bodily Time in the creation, as well as understanding of Mechanical Time.
Mechanical + Bodily Time
56
The Project | The Watch Workshop
Generating Rhythm The drawing reveals the rhythm and repetition produced from the structural system’s framing in the workshop space. Visitors and workers enter obliquely into the space and are carried around, then up, a concrete stair to the assembly, fabrication, and design levels. Mechanical + Bodily Time
57
The drawing probed how the entrance into the space might integrate itself within the existing circulation of the site.
The entrance of the building is not aligned to the cardinal directions, focusing instead on local site circulation and the building’s internal rhythm.
A long linear volume houses the design, fabrication, and assembly program of the building, drawing from the traditions of horology workshops.
Each floor is divided in half, providing separate workspaces for the encasement and movement components of a timepiece.
Proportioning the Plan The building is proportioned with a six foot interval, driving the spacing of columns, trusses, and the subdivision of the floor grid. The ground floor entrance is angled to thirty degrees, aligning to the existing circulation and approach to the Gasworks. 58
The Project | The Watch Workshop
Modulation from the Body The modulation of the proportioning system creates twenty-four foot square structural bays. This square proportion is further divided as a three foot by three foot floor grid. A twelve foot cantilevered space on both sides functions for individual workspaces, while the central twenty-four foot dimension supports general circulation. Mechanical + Bodily Time
59
The drawing probed how the oblique wall, lobby, central stair, and linear workshop space might come together to form a whole.
The workshop lobby is punctuated by twenty-four brass skylights that are suspended through the cubic glass volume and truss structural supports.
Developing the Massing The workshop volumes engage the existing circulation and context in order to integrate with the site.
60
The Project | The Watch Workshop
Each floor has a different rhythm to frame the body at work, scaled to the individual body in some cases and to collective movement in others.
Twenty-four brass skylights are suspended from the trusses which support the glass volume.
A detail proposes how each skylight might bring light down into the space differently.
The drawing proposes how the rhythm of structure can be carried through the glass lobby.
Individual workspaces are formed from three foot by three foot protruding windows on the assembly level.
The columns are proportioned to the human hand, with a diameter of six inches.
The column meets the ground and provides some form of utility to the assembly workers.
Developing the Parts Each constituent part of the workshop deals with developing a system of repetition that is tailored to or derived from the scale of the human body, and thus form a larger whole that engages the haptic body. Mechanical + Bodily Time
61
Generating Repetition In contrast with a body at work, repetitive structural bays and a facade composed of regular, vertical, brass louvers regulates the space.
62
The Project | The Watch Workshop
Mechanical + Bodily Time
63
The facade is composed of vertical brass louvers spaced every one-foot on center on the upper two floors.
The twenty-four suspended brass skylights delineate a grid on the floor below.
Material Repetition In addition to the regular structural system, repeated brass elements throughout the workshop, such as the facade and lobby skylights, amplify a rigid measure of haptic experiences. 64
The Project | The Watch Workshop
BCJ’s Apple Store in NYC celebrates a Platonic ideal - a cubic glass volume.
Allied Work’s Museum of Art uses frosted glass and vertical louvers to differentiate its facade.
Frosted glass floors reveal a human presence above.
The Vitruvian man presents the “ideal” proportion of the body at six feet in height and width.
The Modular Man relates to design principles which tie architecture to the body in space.
The part to whole relationship of watches informed the tripartite division of program.
Moments of Understanding Drawing from historic understanding of the body, horology, and building, the workshop becomes an assemblage of interpretations through both Mechanical and Bodily Time. Mechanical + Bodily Time
65
The section of the entrance into the workshop lobby incorporates brass panels at thirty inches to engage the body while entering the space, acting in a similar capacity to a balustrade.
The section generates a smaller footprint for the assembly floor which deals with a much more refined part of watch craft.
The assembly of the building attempts to parallel the tectonic construction of watches and other time keeping instruments.
Developing the Section The development of the section explores a variety of scales from column to handrail, yet all decisions aim to engage and frame the bodies entering and occupying the workshop. 66
The Project | The Watch Workshop
The roof of the building is a layering of trusses and glass panels of varying transparency to allow consistent diffused natural light throughout the floor devoted to watch design.
The tectonic structure of the roof and floor surfaces of the two upper floors create a consistent ambient lighting condition and highlight the body rather than change in spatial conditions.
Tripartite Division The superimposition of floors separates the program of the workshop into three constituent parts: design, fabrication, and assembly. Through this tripartite division, the variation of the haptic body is highlighted in contrast to the rhythmic and regulated architecture. Mechanical + Bodily Time
67
The Section: Bodily Measure The section of the workshop is modulated by a six foot grid derived from the human body; columns are spaced at twenty-four feet on center, floor to ceiling heights at twelve feet, twelve foot divisions for working spaces, and a three foot floor grid. The tectonic composition generates a consistent frame for the haptic body. 68
The Project | The Watch Workshop
Mechanical + Bodily Time
69
The Section: Framing Windows Ribbon windows are located on the fabrication and design levels at thirty inches, while the assembly floor has thirty inch by thirty inch projecting windows scaled for the individual use of a watchmaker. Each frames the body while standing and sitting. Brass fittings mark the columns at six feet further indicating the measurement of the body in space. 70
The Project | The Watch Workshop
Mechanical + Bodily Time
71
Columns merge into a refined brass connection point to support the trusses above.
Vertical glass pass-throughs connect floors visually and audibly.
Vertical glass louvers highlight the ribbon windows along the upper two levels.
Ribbon windows on the design and fabrication floors frame the body while sitting and standing.
The assembly floor houses individual workspaces for individual horologists.
Each workspace measures three feet by three feet and is articulated through a protruding window that serves as a desk.
Understanding the Section The section of the workshop engages the body at individual and collective scaling, utilizing horizontal and vertical apertures to frame the body internally and externally. 72
The Project | The Watch Workshop
The internal experience of the space draws from the tradition of building, adding in ideas of transparency and refined tectonic composition for a clear articulation of a proportioning system.
Drawing on tradition, watchmaking workshops and factories were long, linear spaces that allowed for modulation and repetition of elements.
Lineage of Building Traditions The design of the workshop evolves the traditional spatial composition of watchmaking spaces with the integration of contemporary materials and tectonic solutions. Mechanical + Bodily Time
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Translucent Grids The repetition of the structural bays and floor grid accentuate regularity on the interior, while simultaneously highlighting the variation of the body in the spaces directly above and below. This variation is aided by visual connections generated by vertical shafts and translucent floors. 74
The Project | The Watch Workshop
Mechanical + Bodily Time
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T h e W a t ch m a k e r ’ s R e s i d e n c e
The home of a watchmaker embraces the idea of Fluid Time, deconstructing the traditional ‘house’ into three fluctuating components: living, working, and observation. The residence celebrates and harnesses nature through relationships to water, wind, and gravity as a means to create a kinetic architecture. The residential construct is manipulated by the occupant and the unique natural, environmental conditions of the site, leaving ephemeral traces throughout a day.
Fluid Time
76
The Project | The Watchmaker’s Residence
Deconstructing the House A conventional house is reconsidered as three fluctuating programmatic components (living, working, and observation), allowing for both a shifting daily routine and experience. Fluid Time
77
This sketch explores the possibility of a transparent eastern facade to frame the sunrise of each day.
This sketch explores how a solid core can connect all three spaces without physical means.
Developing the Plan The scale and placement of each constituent part of the residence is controlled by two anchor points derived from the placement of both the workshop and archive, as well as the sun path. Within these bounds, the plan also orients itself to maximize interplay with local natural elements. 78
The Project | The Watchmaker’s Residence
As the residence is anchored by the relationships to the workshop and archive, the plan in all three sketches adjusts to perpendicularly align to the sunset of the winter solstice.
Winter Solstice Sunrise
Summer Solstice Sunrise Observation Area
Shop OOce Kitchen/Dining Living Room
Lounge
Closet RR
Foyer
RR
Pantry
Bedroom
Meeting Area
The west facade of the living and working components operates as a wind vane, pivoting in response to the direction of the prevailing winds.
Linear “Hearth” A linear core, a reinterpreted “hearth”, links the three separate parts, while housing all static functions (the service spaces, i.e. bathroom, pantry, closet, office, etc.) This allows the east and west facades to be ever changing. Fluid Time
79
Living, Working, Observation The three components are arranged from north to south, (living, working, observation) orienting the primary circulation. The first component is for living and houses a bathroom, bedroom, foyer, and living space. The second volume combines living and working, providing for both cooking-dining space adjacent to an office-meeting area. The third and smallest component, similar to a front porch, supports observation. 80
The Project | The Watchmaker’s Residence
Fluid Time
81
The section of the residence begins to engage with both water and wind.
Each space formed by the linear “hearth” is capped with clear glass to admit natural light into the enclosed spaces.
Developing the Section The process of developing the section reveals the residence’s pivoting facades, rotating panels, and a space designed to orient the occupant to specific views and varying moments across a day. 82
The Project | The Watchmaker’s Residence
The chimneys that punctuate the linear hearth are no longer used for fumigation of smoke. Instead, they act as collection devices, capturing rainwater as it sheds down the pitched roof.
The chimney, understood as a water collection device, is divided into tiers with transitional portions of decreasing scale, stepping the water toward the interior. This uses gravity to generate water pressure.
Kinetics Through its relationships to the unique natural conditions of the site, the section of the residence welcomes spatial re-definition by the occupant, as well as rain, wind, and gravity. Fluid Time
83
The Dynamic Section The section of the residence slopes up to the east serving a dual capacity: framing the sunrise on one side, and draining water to the linear hearth and scupper on the other. The central hearth can be modulated to not only act as service space, but also kinetic towers and, an observation platform. 84
The Project | The Watchmaker’s Residence
Fluid Time
85
With the collection of water, a scupper on the west side drops to lock the pivoting wind facade into place.
At the center of each chimney, rather than a fire, a waterwheel rotates with the collection of water.
Understanding the Section The components of the section allow for variable spatial composition dependent on both the occupant and weather conditions, capturing invisible forces to create varied as well as ephemeral spaces. 86
The Project | The Watchmaker’s Residence
For observation, the “hearth� is enclosed with concrete rather than glass to create a viewing platform for the watchmaker.
The east facade pivots at ten feet to align with the height of the linear hearth once opened fully.
The section of the chimney transitions from open to closed to increase water pressure with the help of gravity and so turn the waterwheel.
As the facade pivots, the flexible living space extends up to ten feet laterally, creating a covered, open air space.
Fluid Time
87
When pivoted to ninety degrees, the glass facade generates a new section dynamic, carrying the height of the linear hearth ten feet to the exterior.
The pivoting facade is controlled by a counterweight that can be raised or lowered with the turn of a wheel.
Olson Kundig’s Chicken Point Cabin demonstrates the idea of a large pivoting facade.
OK’s Berkshire’s Residence demonstrates a sliding facade element.
OK’s California Gallery celebrates the use of a counterweight to expand the interior space.
A traditional waterwheel generates power from the movement of water and the rotation of the wheel.
Deeper fins capture more water and thus the wheel generates power more efficiently.
The addition of curvature to the section of the fins can better harness the flow of water.
Moments of Understanding Through utilizing moving parts, architecture has the capability to visibly express use, whether through sliding, rotating, or pivoting. The residence is composed of an array of parts that generate a kinetic section. 88
The Project | The Watchmaker’s Residence
Moving Parts This sketch works out how counterweights, gears, and wheels can generate a fluctuating space that expands and contracts relative to the influence of the occupant or natural elements. Fluid Time
89
The Water “Clock” Both the living and working components have a kinetic water tower. Each is controlled by the specific weather conditions and use gravity and water to turn a waterwheel which then raises two steel doors, revealing the process of movement and a space for contemplation. This use of kinetic elements creates a fluctuating interior spatial experience, blurring the interior-exterior boundaries of the residence. 90
The Project | The Watchmaker’s Residence
Fluid Time
91
Ephemeral Traces Each day the watchmaker can observe and study the sunrise, utilizing counterweights to pivot the facade outward. An occupant manipulates the dynamic facade and thus generates their own ephemeral traces. 92
The Project | The Watchmaker’s Residence
Fluid Time
93
T h e H o r o l o g y A r ch i v e
A collection of volumes and artifacts dedicated to horology are held within a building capturing the idea of Natural Time, recalling and embodying the cyclical nature of both time and knowledge. All archives contain a collective history, a written/built record that is the means to communicate across time; this archive houses the summative knowledge of horology and the art of building. Through the use of material, structure, Euclidean geometry, and solar alignment, the horology archive acknowledges and builds upon typology and precedent, becoming a repository for and over time.
Natural Time
94
The Project | The Horology Archive
Orientation The archive is sited on the top of Kite Hill, the highest point on the site. The foundation of the building anchors itself at the center of the analemmatic sundial that previously articulated the hill’s crest. Natural Time
95
Utilizing the cardinal directions as reference nodes, the archive is divided into four quadrants: one for entry and three for horology materials.
The alignments of the summer and winter solstices form a more refined and place-oriented division.
Early sketches proposed various modes of vertical circulation relative to radial organization: here, in the central space and along the perimeter.
The central double helix stair anchors the plan and allows for both visual connection and natural light throughout the building.
Developing the Plan The archive is oriented to align with the cardinal directions with the center of the double helix stair atrium anchoring the center. The plan is arranged radially from this central stair, dividing the building into three parts: central circulation, hanging shelves, and individual study spaces. 96
The Project | The Horology Archive
Winter Solstice Sunrise
Summer Solstice Sunrise
Astrological Measurement
Conference Room
Restroom
UP
Analemmatic Sundial
UP
Metered Measurement
Conference Room
Reading Area
Restroom
Books
Mechanical Measurement
Summer Solstice Sunset Winter Solstice Sunset
Lake Union
The superimposition of the arcs of the sun control the placement and sizing of the storage areas, forming three main sections and leaving the north side as a common area.
Astrological Measurement
Conference Room
Restroom
UP
Analemmatic Sundial
UP
Metered Measurement
Conference Room
Reading Area
Restroom
Books
Mechanical Measurement
Individual study spaces are located along three sides of the plan with the north side being retained for functional spaces such as conference rooms, storage closets, restrooms, and elevators.
Solstice Shelving The arcs of the sun from the summer to winter solstice drive the placement and sizing of the shelving, creating three subdivisions: astrological, metered, and mechanical sections. Natural Time
97
Central Double Helix Stair The large double helix stair anchors itself at the center of the sundial that topped the hill before the archive. The stair connects all three floors as well as the occupiable roof that affords unobstructed views to Seattle and the cosmos. 98
The Project | The Horology Archive
Natural Time
99
The double helix stair creates a sense of the continuum of time and culture rooted in the center of the space.
Six foot deep trusses span the full width of the archive to support an open plan.
Generating Symmetry The archive utilizes a square plan to generate symmetry along both axes. A large central void, filled with natural light, draws attention through its double helix stair. 100
The Project | The Horology Archive
The radial-linear organization of Stonehenge frames positions of the sun throughout the year.
The Pyramids of Giza are sited for the worship and demarcation of the setting sun.
The Horologium of Augustus occupies a large central gathering space.
Louis Kahn’s Exeter Library organizes itself centrically, with a large central void filled with natural light from above.
Jean Tschumi’s Nestle HQ double helix stair projects its footprint down onto the floor surface
The Biblioteca Vasconcelos by Kalach and Palomar suspends its collection of books from large roof trusses.
Moments of Understanding Through an understanding of the unique site conditions of the archive and Kite Hill, the combination of structural systems, Euclidean geometry, and radial organization allows the archive to engage the effects and movement of the sun. Natural Time
101
Iterative sketches studied how the archive might engage the topography of the site.
The building is centered on top of the hill, recognizing the existing sundial.
The section was studied as a means to direct attention to a central space.
The project battled how to reconcile both vertical circulation and a prominent central volume.
Book and storage shelves hang from the roof structure adjacent to the central void.
Skylights above the hanging shelves amplify their volumetric autonomy.
This sketch explores which construction method might minimize visual obstructions and maximize natural light throughout the space.
Developing the Section The section of the archive builds upon the history of Kite Hill and its analemmatic sundial. The building draws attention centrally and upward towards the light and the cosmos through the use of suspension and voided space. 102
The Project | The Horology Archive
This sketch explores a concrete construction to achieve cantilevers and minimize columns. The central void begins at twenty-eight feet in diameter, expands with each floor, and is capped with a sundial skylight to bring more light into the space.
The central void is occupiable through the use of a large double helix stair in the center, flanked by suspended shelving on either side.
Cyclical Circulation The placement of the main means of vertical circulation in the central void of the archive drives attention and engagement to both the horology materials in the shelves and the light/shadows cast from the sundial skylight above. Natural Time
103
The Section The building uses waffle slabs with two-foot diameter circular coffers to achieve eighteen foot cantilevers, to minimize columns, and to maximize natural light and unobstructed views towards the central space. 104
The Project | The Horology Archive
Natural Time
105
The Section The double helix stair wraps around a central void filled with natural light, allowing one to ascend up through the hanging bookshelves to the sundial which surmounts the space. Looking at material choices, brass finished stairs are expected to wear over time and thus reveal varied foot traffic patterns in their patina. Exterior brass finishes would patina differently when exposed to the natural elements. 106
The Project | The Horology Archive
Natural Time
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Large skylights of translucent glass wash the suspended shelves with sunlight.
The helix stair leads to the roof for access to the sundial.
The central skylight is accessible and encourages interaction.
The suspended shelves drop through the two foot thick concrete structural slab.
The central stair allows for direct contact with the shelves while circulating up and down.
Waffle slabs with two foot circular coffers minimize columns and maximize cantilevers.
Understanding the Section The section of the archive draws from the summative knowledge of the art of building to create a repository for and of natural time, focusing attention centrally and vertically towards the sky through the capabilities of the roof assembly. 108
The Project | The Horology Archive
The central skylight derives its form and scale from the existing sundial that preceded it on the crest of Kite Hill.
The existing sundial is located on the top of Kite Hill, measuring twenty-eight feet in diameter. This marker is the origin of the siting of both the archive and the complex as a whole.
Retaining the Sundial The existing sundial is analemmatic, meaning the gnomon or vertical object that casts the shadow is the human body. At the center of the ellipse that indicates what time of day it is, a date line indicates where to stand according to the time of year. Natural Time
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Analemmatic Skylight The central void is capped by a twenty-eight feet diameter analemmatic sundial skylight, recalling the existing sundial that occupied the crest of Kite Hill. An analemmatic sundial is one in which the body is the vertical object casting shadows. A rectangular dateline is centered on the translucent skylight, indicating where to stand according to the time of year. 110
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Skylight Stair The double helix stair carries one up through the archive, beneath the analemmatic skylight, and up to its occupiable surface. The void of the stair brings natural light through the space, allowing for visual connection to the shadows cast on the sundial skylight throughout each floor. 112
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Transgression
Transgression (n): The action of transgressing or passing beyond the bounds of legality or right; a violation of law, duty, or command; disobedience, trespass, sin. More than ever before, the architect is bound by narrow contexts within which he or she is expected to create and innovate. The increasing complexity of contemporary society makes it difficult to see beyond the framework of what is minimally required and obscures the idea of what is next. Acting in response to society instead of for society, architecture becomes reactionary and not progressive. The study of transgression sought to understand how and why change occurs, specifically in the realm of architecture. It acted as a possibility of referencing the past and building toward the future without mere duplication. The questioning and testing of prevalent limits were probed as to how one might allow for architecture to develop in parallel to society rather than become static.
“How can architecture remain a means by which society explores new territories, develops new knowledge?” 3 “Transgression opens the door into what lies beyond the limits usually observed, but it maintains these limits just the same. Transgression is complementary to the profane world, exceeding its limits but not destroying it.” 4
3. Bernard Tschumi, Architecture and Disjunction 4. Georges Bataille, Eroticism
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A Process of Time The idea of transgression is not a singular act, it is a process that engages the past, present, and future all at the same time. Through the questioning of prevalent limits, this process takes architecture to the next stage with the hope of exploring new territories. 117
Transgression Collage If architecture can be thought of as a collective understanding or set of knowledge, then how does the expanse of the collective grow without the challenging of current understanding and limitations? 118
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Prevalence of Elements Collage A study of the increasing number of essential elements of architecture reveals the smallest scale of transgression, that of an element. Over time, elements such as the ramp have evolved to become to the stair, the escalator, and finally the elevator showing the necessity to challenge prevailing ideas. 120
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Roman Arch Rome, Italy | 4th Century BC
Kimbell Art Museum Fort Worth, Texas | 1972
The Transgression Fort Worth, Texas | 1972
The arch evolves from the trabeated system utilized in ancient Greece, allowing for larger spans and vaulting.
Louis I. Kahn is interested in the physical mass of architecture and references back to the traditions of the Roman ruins.
The Roman arch is built from concrete whic the keystone to be removed in order to distributed indirect light.
Time and Transgression Any work of novelty is understood through comparison to that which exists, participating in respectful dialogue with the past, leading to the question: Can the manipulation of traditions of building become a means to materialize time in a contemporary setting? When looking at Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum, the section is understood through references taken from the roman arch and Hadrian’s Villa. 122
The Exploration | Transgression
ch allows o achieve
Hadrian’s Villa + Kimbell Art Museum Tivoli, Italy +Fort Worth, Texas | 117 AD - 1972 The two works are in constructive dialogue with each other, from which an understanding of cultural, mental and temporal realities may be formed.
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Tradition
Tradition (n): A belief, statement, custom, etc., handed down by non-written means (esp. word of mouth, or practice) from generation to generation; such beliefs, etc., considered collectively. Creative work is always a question of collaboration; referencing and building upon ideas of tradition. These ideas are the context through which any work of architecture, even the most radical is understood, they are the link into the continuum of culture and time. Tradition is a living stream which passes along the essences of building across time. It is the common language of architecture. There is no meaningful communication in human culture without reference to a tradition. This notion is the rudder that guides individual creativity, the foundation for innovation and it is what helps an architect understand and be conscious of his or her own contemporaneity. This study uncovered architecture’s ability to use traditions of building to engage a duality of the past and present, initiating the idea of a plural nature of time. How does tradition evolve to presence a duality of time; a simultaneous understanding of the past and present?
“A sense of tradition is the rudder that guides individual creativity...We all work in a cultural continuum, and our work is inspired by our predecessors, and the most radical works of our time give new meanings to the works in history. Creative work is always collaboration.� 5
5. Juhani Pallasmaa, Common Ground: An Interview with Juhani Pallasmaa
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L1
L2 TT rr aa dd iitti ioonn L3
L4
C Coolllleecctti vi ve e Legacy
Legacy
Collective Legacy If tradition is any set of collective values passed from one generation to the next, then it evolves through the integration of legacies to come. Tradition could be thought of as a collective legacy. 125
Stonehenge Wiltshire, England | 2400 BC
Lion Gate Mycenae, Greece | 1300 BC
Temple of Hera II Paestum, Italy | 450 BC
Erechtheion Athens, Greece | 421 BC
Temp Athe
The simplest system of load and support, utilizing two vertical members to support a third spanning member. The post and lintel system is the origin of openings.
A refined trabeated system that evolves the idea of the opening into a framed entrance or gate.
A clear definition of the column emerges in the Doric order, which incorporates a somewhat standardized proportioned shaft (4-6.5/1 height to diameter) and the capital which expresses a gradual transfer of loads.
The Ionic order integrates a base to a more slender shaft proportion (9/1 height to diameter), lifting the structure off the stylobate.
The t the m and flowe
The Evolution of Structure The evolution of structure from trabeated to arcuated reveals traces of a long lineage of building, particularly spatial and tectonic, drawing out the question: How can tectonic considerations begin to presence a sense of time? 126
The Exploration | Tradition
How do we begin to identify how we fit into time’s continuum through the experience of the temporal?
ple of Olympian Zeus ens, Greece | 200 AD
Arch of Septimius Severus Rome, Italy | 203 AD
Basilica of Maxentius Rome, Italy | 307 AD
Crystal Palace Hyde Park, London | 1851 AD
trabeated system is further refined with most slender proportion with the tallest most articulated capital, depicting ering acanthus leaves
The trabeated system is replaced by the arcuated system, which utilizes a curved lintel in order to span larger distances with smaller blocks or voussoirs. This system redirects the loads laterally and vertically.
The arch evolves with the introduction of concrete, eliminating the use of smaller masonry blocks. The arch is moved through space to form vaults which require thicker lateral supports to transfer the loads to the ground.
The introduction of 19th century materials such as glass and cast iron, eliminates excessive weight and lateral thrust of masonry/ concrete vaulting. Resulting in the emergence of skeleton vaults, which require little to no buttressing.
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Evolution of Tradition Collage How do we draw from, challenge, and evolve ideas of tradition in order to innovate through the art of building?
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Referents
Referent (n): The entity referred to or signified by a word or expression; a thing or person alluded to. The study of referents in architecture builds upon the idea of tradition and the idea that creative work is always a question of collaboration; the collaboration across time, from the past to the present and the present to the future. This plural nature of time through the act of collaborating is critical in experiencing time both visually and cognitively. Referents are sources of inspiration; also, they are sources of understanding. Referents are a link between different temporal aspects, a link that provides architecture with the capacity to construct a plurality of relationships to time. The utilization of referents in architecture allows a singular building to relate to a multiplicity of perception across and of time.
“Every significant and true work sets itself in a respectful dialogue with the past, both distant and immediate. At the same time that the work defends itself as a unique and complete microcosm, it revives and revitalizes the past. Every true work of art occupies a thick and layered time instead of mere contemporaneity.� 6
6. Juhani Pallasmaa, Space, Place, Memory, and Imagination: The Temporal Dimension of Existential Space
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Integrating Multiplicity Through understanding the essential essence of a referent and its own use of referents, a single work of architecture is able to engage a layered sense of time, physically and cognitively. 131
The Waste Land By: T.S. Eliot
I. The Burial of the De
April is the cruellest month, bre Lilacs out of the dead land, mixi Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. Summer surprised us, coming ov With a shower of rain; we stopp And went on in sunlight, into the And drank coffee, and talked for Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus And when we were children, stay My cousin’s, he took me out on a And I was frightened. He said, M Marie, hold on tight. And down In the mountains, there you feel I read, much of the night, and go
What are the roots that clutch, Out of this stony rubbish? Son o You cannot say, or guess, for you A heap of broken images, where And the dead tree gives no shelte And the dry stone no sound of w There is shadow under this red r (Come in under the shadow of t And I will show you something d Your shadow at morning striding Or your shadow at evening rising I will show you fear in a handful Frisch weht der W Der Heimat zu Mein Irisch Kind, Wo weilest du? “You gave me hyacinths first a ye “They called me the hyacinth gir —Yet when we came back, late, Your arms full, and your hair we Speak, and my eyes failed, I was Living nor dead, and I knew not Looking into the heart of light, t Oed’ und leer das Meer.
Madame Sosostris, famous clair Had a bad cold, nevertheless Is known to be the wisest woma With a wicked pack of cards. He Is your card, the drowned Phoen (Those are pearls that were his e Here is Belladonna, the Lady of The lady of situations. Here is the man with three stave And here is the one-eyed mercha Which is blank, is something he Which I am forbidden to see. I d The Hanged Man. Fear death by I see crowds of people, walking Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Tell her I bring the horoscope m One must be so careful these day
Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter A crowd flowed over London Br I had not thought death had und Sighs, short and infrequent, were And each man fixed his eyes bef Flowed up the hill and down Kin To where Saint Mary Woolnoth k With a dead sound on the final s There I saw one I knew, and stop “You who were with me in the s “That corpse you planted last ye “Has it begun to sprout? Will it b “Or has the sudden frost disturb “Oh keep the Dog far hence, tha “Or with his nails he’ll dig it up a “You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon s II. A Game of Chess
The Chair she sat in, like a burni Glowed on the marble, where th Held up by standards wrought w From which a golden Cupidon p (Another hid his eyes behind his Doubled the flames of sevenbra Reflecting light upon the table as The glitter of her jewels rose to From satin cases poured in rich p In vials of ivory and coloured gl Unstoppered, lurked her strange Unguent, powdered, or liquid—t And drowned the sense in odour That freshened from the window In fattening the prolonged candl Flung their smoke into the laque Stirring the pattern on the coffer Huge sea-wood fed with copper Burned green and orange, frame In which sad light a carvéd dolph Above the antique mantel was di As though a window gave upon The change of Philomel, by the So rudely forced; yet there the ni Filled all the desert with inviolab And still she cried, and still the w “Jug Jug” to dirty ears. And other withered stumps of ti Were told upon the walls; staring Leaned out, leaning, hushing the Footsteps shuffled on the stair. Under the firelight, under the br Spread out in fiery points Glowed into words, then would
The Waste Land T.S. Eliot’s conception of the “historical sense” allows a single work of literature to link eleven different categories of referents and engage works ranging across hundreds of years, representing a breadth of personal history and historic culture. The use of referents is one critical link into the continuum of time and culture. 132
The Exploration | Referents
The Waste Land By: T.S. Eliot
I. The Burial of the Dead April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch. And when we were children, staying at the arch-duke’s, My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened. He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. In the mountains, there you feel free. I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust. Frisch weht der Wind Der Heimat zu Mein Irisch Kind, Wo weilest du? “You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; “They called me the hyacinth girl.” —Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. Oed’ und leer das Meer. Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante, Had a bad cold, nevertheless Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she, Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor, (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!) Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, The lady of situations. Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel, And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card, Which is blank, is something he carries on his back, Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring. Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone, Tell her I bring the horoscope myself: One must be so careful these days. Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many. Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. Flowed up the hill and down King William Street, To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: “Stetson! “You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! “That corpse you planted last year in your garden, “Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? “Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? “Oh keep the Dog far hence, that’s friend to men, “Or with his nails he’ll dig it up again! “You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!” II. A Game of Chess The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne, Glowed on the marble, where the glass Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines From which a golden Cupidon peeped out (Another hid his eyes behind his wing) Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra Reflecting light upon the table as The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it, From satin cases poured in rich profusion; In vials of ivory and coloured glass Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes, Unguent, powdered, or liquid—troubled, confused And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air That freshened from the window, these ascended In fattening the prolonged candle-flames, Flung their smoke into the laquearia, Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling. Huge sea-wood fed with copper Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone, In which sad light a carvéd dolphin swam. Above the antique mantel was displayed As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale Filled all the desert with inviolable voice And still she cried, and still the world pursues, “Jug Jug” to dirty ears. And other withered stumps of time Were told upon the walls; staring forms Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed. Footsteps shuffled on the stair. Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair Spread out in fiery points Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.
“My nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. Stay with me. “Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak. “What are you thinking of ? What thinking? What? “I never know what you are thinking. Think.” I think we are in rats’ alley Where the dead men lost their bones. “What is that noise?” The wind under the door. “What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?” Nothing again nothing. “Do “You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember “Nothing?” I remember Those are pearls that were his eyes. “Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?” But O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag— It’s so elegant So intelligent “What shall I do now? What shall I do?” “I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street “With my hair down, so. What shall we do tomorrow? “What shall we ever do?” The hot water at ten. And if it rains, a closed car at four. And we shall play a game of chess, Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door. When Lil’s husband got demobbed, I said— I didn’t mince my words, I said to her myself, HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME Now Albert’s coming back, make yourself a bit smart. He’ll want to know what you done with that money he gave you To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there. You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set, He said, I swear, I can’t bear to look at you. And no more can’t I, I said, and think of poor Albert, He’s been in the army four years, he wants a good time, And if you don’t give it him, there’s others will, I said. Oh is there, she said. Something o’ that, I said. Then I’ll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look. HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME If you don’t like it you can get on with it, I said. Others can pick and choose if you can’t. But if Albert makes off, it won’t be for lack of telling. You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique. (And her only thirty-one.) I can’t help it, she said, pulling a long face, It’s them pills I took, to bring it off, she said. (She’s had five already, and nearly died of young George.) The chemist said it would be all right, but I’ve never been the same. You are a proper fool, I said. Well, if Albert won’t leave you alone, there it is, I said, What you get married for if you don’t want children? HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon, And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot— HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight. Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight. Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea, The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights Her stove, and lays out food in tins. Out of the window perilously spread Her drying combinations touched by the sun’s last rays, On the divan are piled (at night her bed) Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays. I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest— I too awaited the expected guest. He, the young man carbuncular, arrives, A small house agent’s clerk, with one bold stare, One of the low on whom assurance sits As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire. The time is now propitious, as he guesses, The meal is ended, she is bored and tired, Endeavours to engage her in caresses Which still are unreproved, if undesired. Flushed and decided, he assaults at once; Exploring hands encounter no defence; His vanity requires no response, And makes a welcome of indifference. (And I Tiresias have foresuffered all Enacted on this same divan or bed; I who have sat by Thebes below the wall And walked among the lowest of the dead.) Bestows one final patronising kiss, And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit . . . She turns and looks a moment in the glass, Hardly aware of her departed lover; Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass: “Well now that’s done: and I’m glad it’s over.” When lovely woman stoops to folly and Paces about her room again, alone, She smoothes her hair with automatic hand, And puts a record on the gramophone. “This music crept by me upon the waters” And along the Strand, up Queen Victoria Street. O City city, I can sometimes hear Beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street, The pleasant whining of a mandoline And a clatter and a chatter from within Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls Of Magnus Martyr hold Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold. The river sweats Oil and tar The barges drift With the turning tide Red sails Wide To leeward, swing on the heavy spar. The barges wash Drifting logs Down Greenwich reach Past the Isle of Dogs. Weialala leia Wallala leialala Elizabeth and Leicester Beating oars The stern was formed A gilded shell Red and gold The brisk swell Rippled both shores Southwest wind Carried down stream The peal of bells White towers Weialala leia Wallala leialala
III. The Fire Sermon The river’s tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed. Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song. The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers, Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed. And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors; Departed, have left no addresses. By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept . . . Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song, Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long. But at my back in a cold blast I hear The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear. A rat crept softly through the vegetation Dragging its slimy belly on the bank While I was fishing in the dull canal On a winter evening round behind the gashouse Musing upon the king my brother’s wreck And on the king my father’s death before him. White bodies naked on the low damp ground And bones cast in a little low dry garret, Rattled by the rat’s foot only, year to year. But at my back from time to time I hear The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring. O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter And on her daughter They wash their feet in soda water Et O ces voix d’enfants, chantant dans la coupole! Twit twit twit Jug jug jug jug jug jug So rudely forc’d. Tereu Unreal City Under the brown fog of a winter noon Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants C.i.f. London: documents at sight, Asked me in demotic French To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel Followed by a weekend at the Metropole. At the violet hour, when the eyes and back Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits Like a taxi throbbing waiting, I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives, Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives
“Trams and dusty trees. Highbury bore me. Richmond and Kew Undid me. By Richmond I raised my knees Supine on the floor of a narrow canoe.” “My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart Under my feet. After the event He wept. He promised a ‘new start.’ I made no comment. What should I resent?” “On Margate Sands. I can connect Nothing with nothing. The broken fingernails of dirty hands. My people humble people who expect Nothing.” la la To Carthage then I came Burning burning burning burning O Lord Thou pluckest me out O Lord Thou pluckest burning IV. Death by Water Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell And the profit and loss. A current under sea Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell He passed the stages of his age and youth Entering the whirlpool. Gentile or Jew O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you. V. What the Thunder Said After the torchlight red on sweaty faces After the frosty silence in the gardens After the agony in stony places The shouting and the crying
Prison and palace and reverberation Of thunder of spring over distant mountains He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying With a little patience Here is no water but only rock Rock and no water and the sandy road Here is no water but only rock Rock and no water and the sandy road The road winding above among the mountains Which are mountains of rock without water If there were water we should stop and drink Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand If there were only water amongst the rock Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit There is not even silence in the mountains But dry sterile thunder without rain There is not even solitude in the mountains But red sullen faces sneer and snarl From doors of mudcracked houses If there were water And no rock If there were rock And also water And water A spring A pool among the rock If there were the sound of water only Not the cicada And dry grass singing But sound of water over a rock Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop But there is no water Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together But when I look ahead up the white road There is always another one walking beside you Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded I do not know whether a man or a woman —But who is that on the other side of you? What is that sound high in the air Murmur of maternal lamentation Who are those hooded hordes swarming Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth Ringed by the flat horizon only What is the city over the mountains Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air Falling towers Jerusalem Athens Alexandria Vienna London Unreal A woman drew her long black hair out tight And fiddled whisper music on those strings And bats with baby faces in the violet light Whistled, and beat their wings And crawled head downward down a blackened wall And upside down in air were towers Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells. In this decayed hole among the mountains In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel There is the empty chapel, only the wind’s home. It has no windows, and the door swings, Dry bones can harm no one. Only a cock stood on the rooftree Co co rico co co rico In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust Bringing rain Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves Waited for rain, while the black clouds Gathered far distant, over Himavant. The jungle crouched, humped in silence. Then spoke the thunder DA Datta: what have we given? My friend, blood shaking my heart The awful daring of a moment’s surrender Which an age of prudence can never retract By this, and this only, we have existed Which is not to be found in our obituaries Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor In our empty rooms DA Dayadhvam: I have heard the key Turn in the door once and turn once only We think of the key, each in his prison Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison Only at nightfall, aethereal rumours Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus DA Damyata: The boat responded Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar The sea was calm, your heart would have responded Gaily, when invited, beating obedient To controlling hands I sat upon the shore Fishing, with the arid plain behind me Shall I at least set my lands in order? London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down Poi s’ascose nel foco che gli affina Quando fiam uti chelidon—O swallow swallow Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie These fragments I have shored against my ruins Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe. Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata. Shantih shantih shantih
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The Temporal Fort Worth, Texas| 1972 The experience of the temporal is that of the individual, rooted in a fixed point in time and understood as a physical manifestation of the presiding culture.
Simultaneity of the Timeless + Temporal A building itself can be considered a temporal construct, while the layering of referents can be considered timeless. Unavailable to the eye but available to the mind, the integration of referents is a means to engage both the timeless and the temporal at the same time. 134
The Exploration | Referents
The Timeless Tivoli, Italy + Fort Worth, Texas | 117 AD - 1972 The experience of the timeless is that of a collective, allowing an individual to surpass the boundaries of time and become rooted in a past forgotten by civilization.
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The Parthenon has a clear structural articulation from the stylobate to pediment, with the connection between the horizontal and vertical indicating a threshold into sacred space.
The Piano Pavilion at the Kimbell Art Museum takes an understanding of a trabeated structural system and evolves it through dividing the beam in half and locating lights in the area between.
Drawing from the materiality, structure, and order of Classical architecture, how can the traditions of temple building be challenged and continued in a contemporary setting?
Classical and Modern Referents A contemporary temple links itself into the continuum of time through the legacy of the trabeated structural system and the order and proportions of Classical rules. 136
The Exploration | Referents
How can the lintel be further utilized in space?
How does the column meet the ground?
Breaking down the referent to understand the constituent parts.
What is the form of a contemporary pediment?
What are the essential components of a Classical temple plan?
How are thresholds articulated without the use of a lintel?
Layers of columns form the contemporary temple, increasing in height towards the center.
The plan of the contemporary temple derives its proportioning from the Classical referent.
An elevated platform receives the column and draws attention to the connection.
The trabeated structural system is refined and indicated through division and material change.
How should the sacred space be delineated in the contemporary temple?
Copper finishing lines the interior of the divided lintel, bringing golden light through the structure.
Intangible Dialogue Learning from archaic lessons of how vertical meets horizontal, the contemporary temple utilizes contemporary tectonic means to transgress the purpose of a lintel, transforming light qualities of a space. As well, the temple becomes a field of columns proportioned for the individual, not a monument dedicated to the gods. 137
Understanding the traditional use of a column through the Classical Orders, what can be done with a column when taken outside of a mere structural function?
The physical remnants of Classical temples offer a different understanding of the column through time, acting as indicators of space without the traditional structural function.
Can a column be a spectacle and inhabited?
Can a column be a place of rest and inhabited?
Can a column be inhabited and avoided?
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Can a column be a space of interaction?
Drawing from the inherent reading of a tangible architectural fragment, how can the traditions of temple building be challenged and continued in a contemporary setting?
Altered Referents The tangible fragment offers insight into a temple’s relationship to time, altering the functionality of a column. With an understanding of the ideal function, the altered referent generates a new understanding of what a column be used for in this particular context. 138
The Exploration | Referents
Can a column be a place of rest and inhabited?
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Frosted glass panels rest on steel beams to bring diffused light down into the space.
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Can a column be a spectacle and inhabited? Can a column be inhabited and avoided?
What is the interior experience of an underground temple?
Can a column be inhabited and avoided?
The new column iteration punctures the frosted glass panels to bring direct light into the space.
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Can a column be a space of interaction?
Can a column be a place of rest and inhabited?
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How does the underground space engage with the existing grade of the site?
How might new columns engage with an existing column drum?
Should new columns become occupiable space above ground?
Can a column be inhabited and avoided?
Can a column be a spectacle and inhabited?
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Can a column be a space of interaction?
The proportions of an existing fragment drive the development of new columns. Can a column be a place of rest and inhabited?
An existing fragment can be understood through the void space of the new.
Can the column become a space of interaction through line of sight?
Can a column be a spectacle and inhabited?
Can a column be inhabited and avoided? Can a column be a place of rest and inhabited?
Can the column be inhabited and avoided at the same time?
Tangible Dialogue
Can the column be inhabited and a place of rest at the same time?
Can a column be a spectacle and inhabited?
Can the column be inhabited and be a spectacle at the same time?
Can a column be a space of interaction?
Drawing from an existing architectural fragment, a column drum, a contemporary temple critiques the traditional uses of the column, re-imagining Can a column be inhabited and what can be done in the same amount of space. The temple references andavoided? builds upon the functionality of the column in order to invert the Can a column be a place of rest and temple, placing the inhabitable space along the perimeter and below ground, therefore eliminating the central chamber. inhabited? 139
140
04 A pp e n d i c e s
141
Layering Abstracts
This series of abstracts chronicles the development of the thesis over the course of nine months. Also, the layering of ideas, distinctions, and transformations across the series embodies a plural conception of time, positioning the series as an experience with a qualitative nature.
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Appendices | Layering Abstracts
20 March 2020 In this world, time is measured down to the nanosecond, precisely quantified to dictate how the world functions. Time is thought to be absolute, marching forward with unrelenting regularity while architecture is erratic, irregularly advancing itself in an attempt to understand its relationship to time. Architects have always sought to find their place in time’s continuum, designing from the past towards the future. At some point in the past, architecture was thought to be the “art of permanence”, a means to domesticate limitless time. Buildings like the Great Pyramids, Stonehenge and the Parthenon all contributed to the lineage of building and the lineage of horology, acting as physical manifestations of their place in time’s continuum. Somewhere along the way, architects tried to control time, seeking to live in the past. This produced copies of buildings in a time in which they did not belong. To further complicate their understanding of time, architects attempted to turn their backs to it, refusing to acknowledge ideas of lineage and tradition. Coupled together, these approaches created a built environment of temporal dissonance; a place where a Parthenon sits in Tennessee and Victorian homes can be bought from hardware stores. In this place, time has lost its meaning, understood through the realm of quantity rather than quality. It is thought of simply as a date or set of numbers as opposed to something to be inhabited and experienced. In this world, architecture must adapt and reinvent itself in the present, instead of blindly looking to the past or future. Architects utilize tradition as a link into time; as a way of reestablishing an understanding of the relationships between the two. In this way, architecture can show both permanence and change, qualifying rather than quantifying time. So with this, a question: How can architecture materialize and presence a polyvalent understanding of time? A Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams tests this question of time and architecture, simultaneously presencing multiple conceptions of time. The project is comprised of an interconnected 3-part complex: a workshop, a residence, and a library. Each part embodying a different interpretation of time through a combination of architectural relationships. In this capacity, mechanical time, body time, fluid time, and natural time can both materialize and presence themselves through didactic architecture, allowing one to “inhabit the continuum of time” in varying capacities.
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17 February 2020 A Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams In this world, time and architecture are continuously intertwined. Time is absolute, marching forward with unrelenting regularity while architecture is erratic, irregularly advancing itself in an attempt to understand its relationship to time. At some point in the past, architecture was thought to be the ‘art of permanence’, a means to domesticate limitless time. Buildings like the Great Pyramids, Stonehenge and the Pantheon all contributed to the lineage of building, acting as physical manifestations of their place in time’s continuum. Somewhere along the way, architecture tried to beat time, seeking to live in the past. This produced copies of old buildings in a time in which they did not belong. To further complicate its relationship to time, architecture attempted to turn its back on time, refusing to acknowledge ideas of lineage and tradition. Coupled together, these approaches created a built environment of temporal dissonance; a place where a Parthenon sits in Tennessee and Victorian homes can be bought from hardware stores. In this place, change has lost its meaning; change has been disconnected from time. A world in which time is absolute is a world of evolution. For while time marches forward, architecture must adapt and reinvent itself in the present, instead of blindly looking to the past or future. Architects utilize tradition as a link into time; as a way of reestablishing an understanding of the relationships between the two. In this way, architecture can show both permanence and change, building upon a lineage that parallels time. In this world, how can architecture materialize and presence various understandings of time? A Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams tests this question of time and architecture. The project is comprised of an interconnected 3-part complex, a workshop, a residence, and a library. Each building upon and evolving an existing lineage and tradition of typological norms. In this capacity, mechanical time, body time, fluid time, and natural time can both materialize and presence themselves through an evolved architecture, showing permanence and change simultaneously.
144
Appendices | Layering Abstracts
02 December 2019 In this world, time and architecture are continuously intertwined. Time is absolute, marching forward with unrelenting regularity while architecture is erratic, irregularly advancing itself in an attempt to understand its relationship to time. At some point in the past, architecture was thought to be the ‘art of permanence’, a means to domesticate limitless time. Buildings like the Great Pyramids, Stonehenge and the Pantheon all contributed to the lineage of building, acting as physical manifestations of their place in time’s continuum. Somewhere along the way, architecture tried to beat time, seeking to live in the past. This produced copies of old buildings in a time in which they did not belong. To further complicate its relationship to time, architecture attempted to turn its back on time, refusing to acknowledge ideas of lineage and tradition. Coupled together, these approaches created a built environment of temporal dissonance; a place where a Parthenon sits in Tennessee and Victorian homes can be bought from hardware stores. In this place, change has lost its meaning; change has been disconnected from time. A world in which time is absolute is a world of evolution. For while time marches forward, architecture must adapt and reinvent itself in the present, instead of blindly looking to the past or future. Architects utilize tradition as a link into time; as a way of reestablishing an understanding of the relationship between the two. In this way, architecture can show both permanence and change, building upon a lineage that parallels time. In this world, how can architecture materialize and presence time?
145
18 November 2019 Creative work is always a question of collaboration; referencing and evolving ideas of tradition. These ideas are the context through which any work of architecture, even the most radical is understood; they are the link into the continuum of culture and time. In response to T.S. Eliot’s essay, Tradition and the Individual Talent, Juhani Pallasmaa says, “Tradition cannot be possessed or inherited; it must be reinvented and re-created by every successive generation. So we have a responsibility to tradition. And that is to keep it alive.” With this in mind: Can architecture materialize and presence time through the evolution of tradition? Tradition is a living stream which passes along the essences of building through time. It is the ‘common language’ of architecture, which engages in meaningful communication with human culture through time. This reference to tradition is the rudder that guides individual creativity, the foundation for innovation and it is what helps an architect understand and be conscious of his/her contemporaneity. Transgression is a means to challenge and evolve tradition; the exploration of a constructive dialogue with the past. It asks the question of what is next, while retaining a holistic understanding of what came before. As the transgressor, an architect views the art of building as the mediation of the past and future. Through this framework, architecture has the ability to collaborate with the past and ground itself in the present, keeping tradition alive. An external field which has a long lineage and longstanding traditions of making, such as horology is selected in order to test the question. Timepiece craft is the means through which society understands, measures, and identifies the passing of time. It allows for drawing from the past traditions of both building and making to inform one another in order to evolve.
146
Appendices | Layering Abstracts
21 October 2019 Creative work is always a question of collaboration; referencing and building upon ideas of tradition. These ideas are the context through which any work of architecture, even the most radical is understood, they are the link into the continuum of culture and time. In response to T.S. Eliot’s essay, Tradition and the Individual Talent, Juhani Pallasmaa says, “Tradition cannot be possessed or inherited; it must be reinvented and re-created by every successive generation. So we have a responsibility to tradition. And that is to keep it alive.� With this in mind: How do we draw from, challenge and evolve ideas of tradition in order to innovate through the art of building? Tradition is a living stream which passes along the essences of building through time. It is the history of exceptional events... There is no meaningful communication in human culture without reference to a tradition. This reference or notion of tradition is the rudder that guides individual creativity and is the foundation for innovation. It is what helps an architect understand and be conscious of his/her contemporaneity. Reinterpreting tradition, therefore evolving it and reinventing the tradition of today. Through working this way, architecture has the capacity to enable us to understand and perceive the dialectics of permanence and change. An external field which has a long lineage and longstanding traditions of making, such as horology (timepiece craft) was selected in order to test the question. Watchmaking is the means through which society understands, measures, and identifies the passing of time. It allows for drawing from past traditions of both building and making to inform one another to evolve. Introducing programmatic novelty to the field of study, the traditions are reinterpreted in order to evolve them in a contemporary setting.
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30 September 2019 Architects exist and live in the continuum of culture and it is our job to engage it, to maintain a sense of continuity through the art of building. With this in mind: How do we challenge and continue tradition relative to a collective understanding of the past? In response to T.S. Eliot’s essay, Tradition and the Individual Talent, Juhani Pallasmaa says, “Tradition cannot be possessed or inherited; it must be reinvented and re-created by every successive generation. So we have a responsibility to tradition. And that is to keep it alive.� Transgression is a means to challenge tradition, it is the exploration of constructive dialogue with the past. It asks the question of what is next, while retaining a holistic understanding of what came before. As the transgressor, an architect views the art of building as the mediation of the past and future. Through this framework, architecture has the ability to collaborate with the past and ground itself in the present, keeping tradition alive.
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Appendices | Layering Abstracts
27 August 2019 Transgression (n): The action of transgressing or passing beyond the bounds of legality or right; a violation of law, duty, or command; disobedience, trespass, sin. More than ever before, the architect is bounded by narrow contexts within which he/she is expected to create and innovate. The increasing complexity of contemporary society makes it difficult to see beyond the framework of what is required and obscures the idea of what is next. Acting in response to society instead of for society, architecture becomes reactionary and not progressive. Time is constant and undeniable. Nothing remains static and inherent in society is the notion of change, change that is both unpredictable and unexpected at times. It may show itself in many forms but none more so than the built environment. Whether it is through form, function or purpose, architecture becomes a physical manifestation of a point in time, but it can also lead society forward. Architecture should be transgressive, exploring not in black or white, but in the infinite space that divides the two. The architect as the transgressor looks “beyond the limits usually observed,� breaking free from the narrow contexts of contemporary society. The architect is able to do so with a holistic understanding of what is being transgressed and the purpose of the transgression itself.
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Reflections
Over this year-long inquiry, the work has evolved from a wide range of topics, all exploring time in architecture and ultimately resolving into a concept of polyvalence. The polyvalent nature of time is not limited to these four tested conceptions, different understandings may be constructed through engagement with other temporal values and relative to the context of a given project. The contemporary world is run in essence, by Mechanical Time. Architecture has the ability to shift our focus away from our wrists and phones to a more meaningful experience with both time and space. I am left with more questions than answers: 1. What are other possible conceptions of time and how can they be explored through architecture? 2. Can a singular conception of time hold value without a prior understanding/ relationship with another? 3. How might this thesis have value at a larger scale, and in other contexts of contemporary society?
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Appendices | Reflections
?
Bodily Fluid
Mechanical
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Natural ?
?
Bodily Fluid
Mechanical
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Natural ?
? Bodily Fluid ?
Mechanical
Natural
?
Expanding Polyvalence This thesis only tests a single context of four conceptions of time. There are many more conceptions and combinations to construct a greater understanding of time’s polyvalence. 151
Text References
Listed Alphabetically by Title: Analysing Architecture - Simon Unwin Architecture and Disjunction - Bernard Tschumi Architecture Concepts: Red is Not a Color - Bernard Tschumi Architecture Oriented Otherwise -David Leatherbarrow Architectural Reflections - Colin St. John Wilson A History of Architectural Theory from Vitruvius to the Present - Hanno-Walter Kruft Beyeler: Foundation Beyeler - Renzo Piano Einstein’s Dreams - Alan Lightman Elements of Architecture - Rem Koolhaas Encounters: Architectural Essays - Juhani Pallasmaa Eroticism - Georges Bataille Space, Place, Memory, and Imagination: The Temporal Dimension of Existential Space - Juhani Pallasmaa The Thinking Hand - Juhani Pallasmaa The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses - Juhani Pallasmaa
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Appendices | Text References
The Architecture of Transgression - Jonathan Mosley, Rachel Sara The Fireplace Book - Roxana McDonald The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered - Louis H. Sullivan The Watch - Gene Stone Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 19651995 - Kate Nesbitt Towards a New Architecture - Le Corbusier Tradition and the Individual Talent - Louis Rice, David Littlefield Transgression: Towards an Expanded Field of Architecture - Bernard Tschumi Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning - Leland M. Roth Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture - Adrian Forty
153
Online References
Listed Alphabetically by Title: Analemmatic Sundials https://plus.maths.org/content/analemmatic-sundials-how-build-one-and-why-theywork Analemmatic Sundial https://www.shadowspro.com/en/analemmatic-sundial.html Berkshire Residence https://olsonkundig.com/projects/berkshire-residence/ Beyeler Foundation Museum http://www.rpbw.com/project/beyeler-foundation-museum California Gallery https://www.dezeen.com/2014/03/20/tom-kundig-242-state-street-gallery-california/ Chicken Point Cabin https://olsonkundig.com/projects/chicken-point-cabin/ Combs Point Residence https://www.bcj.com/projects/combs-point-residence Common Ground: An Interview with Juhani Pallasmaa https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1531-314X.2009.01030.x Dueber Hampden Watch Works https://ohiomemory.ohiohistory.org/archives/2364 Gasworks Park History https://seattle.curbed.com/2019/4/12/18306264/gas-works-park-environmental-history Gasworks Park: A Brief History of a Seattle Landmark https://uwpressblog.com/2015/04/15/gas-works-park-a-brief-history-of-a-seattlelandmark/ Hadrian’s Villa http://www.italia.it/en/travel-ideas/unesco-world-heritage-sites/the-emperors-abodehadrians-villa.html History of Horology https://www.govbergwatches.com/blog/history-of-horology/
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Appendices | Online References
History of Timepieces http://www.nawcc-index.net/History.php History of Watchmaking https://www.hautehorlogerie.org/en/encyclopaedia/history-of-watchmaking/ Horologium Augusti https://www.livius.org/articles/place/rome/rome-photos/rome-horologium-augusti/ Kimbell Art Museum https://www.archdaily.com/123761/ad-classics-kimbell-art-museum-louis-kahn Odunpazari Modern Art Museum https://www.archdaily.com/924542/odunpazari-modern-art-museum-kengo-kumaand-associates Pyramids of Giza https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pyramids-of-Giza Ridge House https://www.archdaily.com/246058/ridge-house-bohlin-cywinski-jackson Seattle Central Library https://oma.eu/projects/seattle-central-library Stonehenge https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stonehenge Vasconcelos Library https://www.archdaily.com/98584/vasconcelos-library-alberto-kalach Visual Guide to References in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land https://bernytan.com/art/a-visual-guide-to-references-in-ts-eliots-the-wasteland-1922 Vitruvian Man https://www.leonardodavinci.net/the-vitruvian-man.jsp Waffle Slab Construction https://theconstructor.org/structural-engg/waffle-slab-ribbed-slab-construction/20546/ Waterwheel https://www.britannica.com/technology/waterwheel-engineering
155
Image References
Images listed by page number: 19. Horology Workshop. Online 19. The Tower to the Winds. Online 19. Stonehenge. Online 19. Ancient Sundial. Online 19. The Pomander Watch. Online 20. The Evolution of Horology. Digital 22. Measurement Techniques. Digital 24. Superimposed Time Diagram. Digital 25. Time Diagram. Digital 25. Time Diagram. Digital 25. Time Diagram. Digital 25. Time Diagram. Digital 26. Time Diagram. Digital 28. Time Diagram. Digital 30. Time Diagram. Digital 33. Polyvalence Diagram. Digital 37. Seattle Aerial View. Online 38. Gasworks Park Photograph (1937). Online 38. Gasworks Park Photograph (1956). Online 39. RHA Master Plan Drawing. Richard Haag and Associates. Online 39. RHA Proposal Rendering.. Richard Haag and Associates. Online 40. The Evolution of Gasworks. Digital. 42. Gasworks Site Plan. Digital. 45. The Watch Workshop. Sketch. Digital Montage. 46. The Watchmaker’s Residence. Sketch. Digital Montage. 47. The Horology Archive. Sketch. Digital Montage. 48. Program Site Plan. Sketch. Drawing. Digital Montage. 50. Horologium Site Plan 1. Drawing. Digital Montage. 52. Horologium Site Plan 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 54. The Horologium - Site Plan Oblique. Drawing. Digital Montage. 56. Time Diagram. Digital 57. Workshop - Plan Oblique. Drawing. Digital Montage. 58. Workshop Plan Layer 1. Sketch. 58. Workshop Plan Layer 2. Sketch. 58. Workshop Plan Layer 3. Drawing. 58. Workshop Plan Layer 4. Drawing. 59 Workshop Plan. Drawing. 60. Workshop Massing Option 1. Sketch. 60. Workshop Massing Option 2. Sketch. 61. Workshop Elevation. Sketch. 61. Workshop Lobby Skylight Option 1 Sketch. 61. Workshop Lobby Skylight Option 2. Sketch.
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Appendices | Image References
61. Workshop Lobby Massing. Sketch. 61. Protruding Assembly Window. Sketch. 61. Workshop Column Options. Sketch. 61. Workshop Column Base. Sketch. 62. Workshop - Plan Oblique. Drawing. Digital Montage. 64. Workshop - Plan Oblique. Drawing. Digital Montage. 64. Workshop - Plan Oblique Crop 1. Drawing. Digital Montage. 64. Workshop - Plan Oblique Crop 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 65. Apple Store NYC. Online. 65. University of Michigan Museum of Art. Online. 65. Frosted Glass Floor. Online. 65. Vitruvian Man. Online. 65. Modulor Man. Online. 65. Watch Diagram. Online. 66. Workshop Entrance Section. Drawing. 66. Workshop Section Option 1. Drawing. 66. Workshop Detail Section . Drawing. 67. Workshop Section Option 2. Drawing. 67. Workshop Section Option 3. Drawing. 68. Workshop Section 1. Drawing. 70. Workshop Section 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 72. Workshop Section 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 72. Workshop Section 2 Crop 1. Drawing. Digital Montage. 72. Workshop Section 2 Crop 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 72. Workshop Section 2 Crop 3. Drawing. Digital Montage. 72. Workshop Section 2 Crop 4. Drawing. Digital Montage. 72. Workshop Section 2 Crop 5. Drawing. Digital Montage. 72. Workshop Section 2 Crop 6. Drawing. Digital Montage. 73. Workshop Rendering. Digital. 73. Horology Workshop. Online. 74. Workshop Rendering. Digital. 76. Time Diagram. Digital 77. Residence - Plan Oblique. Drawing. Digital Montage 78. Residence Plan Option 1. Drawing. 78. Residence Plan Option 2. Drawing. 79. Residence Plan Option 3. Drawing. 79. Residence Plan. Digital. 80. Residence - Plan Oblique. Drawing. Digital Montage. 82. Residence Section Option 1. Drawing. 82. Residence Section Option 2. Drawing. 83. Residence Section Option 3. Drawing. 83. Residence Section Option 4. Drawing. 84. Residence Section. Drawing. Digital Montage. 86. Residence Section. Drawing. Digital Montage.
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86. Residence Section Crop 1. Drawing. Digital Montage. 86. Residence Section Crop 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 87. Residence Section Crop 3. Drawing. Digital Montage. 87. Residence Section Crop 4. Drawing. Digital Montage. 87. Residence Section Crop 5. Drawing. Digital Montage. 87. Residence Section Crop 6. Drawing. Digital Montage. 88. Kinetic Section. Sketch. 88. Kinetic Section Diagram. Sketch. 88. Chicken Point Cabin Pivoting Door. Olson Kundig. Online. 88. Berkshires Residence Sliding Door. Olson Kundig. Online. 88. California Gallery Counterweight Door. Olson Kundig. Online. 88. Traditional Waterwheel. Online. 88. Sagebien Waterwheel. Online. 88. Zuppinger Waterwheel. Online. 89. Moving Parts Oblique. Sketch. 90. Water Clock - Plan Oblique 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 92. Residence Rendering. Digital. 94. Time Diagram. Digital 95. Archive - Plan Oblique. Drawing. Digital Montage. 96. Archive Plan Option 1. Sketch. 96. Archive Plan Option 2. Sketch. 96. Archive Plan Option 3. Sketch. 96. Archive Plan Option 4. Sketch. 97. Archive Plan 1. Digital. 97. Archive Plan 2. Digital. 98. Archive - Plan Oblique. Drawing. Digital Montage. 100. Archive - Plan Oblique. Drawing. Digital Montage. 100. Archive - Plan Oblique Crop 1. Drawing. Digital Montage. 100. Archive - Plan Oblique Crop 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 101. Stonehenge. Online. 101. Pyramids of Giza. Online. 101. Horologium of Augustus. Online. 101. Exeter Library. Online. 101. Nestle HQ Helix Stair. Online. 101. Biblioteca Vasconcelos. Alberto Kalach. Online. 102. Archive Section Option 1. Sketch. 102. Archive Section Option 2. Sketch. 102. Archive Section Option 3. Sketch. 102. Archive Section Option 4. Sketch. 102. Archive Section Option 5. Sketch. 102. Archive Section Option 6. Sketch. 102. Archive Section Option 7. Sketch. 103. Archive Section Option 8. Sketch. 103. Archive Section Option 9. Sketch. 104. Archive Section 1. Drawing. 106. Archive Section 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 108. Archive Section 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 108. Archive Section 2 Crop 1. Drawing. Digital Montage. 108. Archive Section 2 Crop 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 108. Archive Section 2 Crop 3. Drawing. Digital Montage. 108. Archive Section 2 Crop 4. Drawing. Digital Montage. 108. Archive Section 2 Crop 5. Drawing. Digital Montage.
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108. Archive Section 2 Crop 6. Drawing. Digital Montage. 109. Archive Section 2 Crop 7. Drawing. Digital Montage. 109. Existing Analemmatic Sundial. Online. 110. Analemmatic Skylight - Plan Oblique. Drawing. Digital Montage. 112. Archive Rendering 1. Digital. 117. Transgression Diagram. Sketch. 118. Transgression Collage. Drawing. Xylol. 120. Prevalence of Elements Collage. Drawing. Xylol. 122. Time and Transgression Collage. Photocollage. 125. Tradition Diagram. Digital. 126. Evolution of Structure Collage. Photocollage. 128. Evolution of Tradition Collage. Drawing. Xylol. 131. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 1. Drawing. Digital Montage. 132. The Wasteland Diagram. Online. 133. The Wasteland. T.S. Eliot. Online. 134. Simultaneity of the Timeless + Temporal Collage. Photocollage. 136. Parthenon. Online. 136. Piano Pavillion at the Kimbell. Online. 136. Contemporary Temple 1. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 3. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 4. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 5. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 6. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 7. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 8. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 9. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 10. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 11. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 12. Drawing. Digital Montage. 137. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 13. Drawing. Digital Montage. 138. The Classical Orders. Online. 138. Ionic Column Ruins. Online. 138. Contemporary Temple 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 1. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 2. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 3. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 4. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 5. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 6. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 7. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 8. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 9. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 10. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 11. Drawing. Digital Montage. 139. Contemporary Temple 1 Crop 12. Drawing. Digital Montage. 151. Expanded Polyvalence Diagram. Digital 160. Virtual Final Lobby Review Layout. Digital
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The horologium for einsTein’s Dreams
The Workshop | Mechanical + Bodily Time
The Residence | Fluid Time
The Archive | Natural Time
The workshop takes the program of a watchmaking factory and separates it into three constituent parts: design, fabrication, and assembly. Through this tripartite division, the variation of the haptic body is highlighted in contrast to the rhythmic and regulated architecture.
The residence uses elements of nature as a means to create kinetic architecture that fluctuates as the day does. A breeze, a rain, a storm, all can create fluctuating space that has the possibility to carry one back in time. This building is anchored by its relative positioning on the site to both the workshop and library, utilizing the arcs of the sunrise from the summer solstice to winter solstice to form a larger scale connection between the three buildings that form the complex.
The archive engages the cyclical nature of time and knowledge, recalling the arcs of the sun as well as buildings from the past that integrated horology as an essential component of their design, such as Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids. Located at the highest point of the site, this building aligns itself to the cardinal directions and has unobstructed views to the cosmos.
The Residence | Kinetic Facade
The Archive | Skylight Stair
Each day, the watchmaker can observe and study the sunrise, utilizing counterweights to pivot the facade outward, leaving a physical trace memory in the architecture.
The double helix stair carries one up through the archive, around the analemmatic skylight, and up to the occupiable roof. The void of the stair brings natural light through the space, allowing for visual connection to the shadows cast on the sundial skylight.
The Residence | Linear Hearth
The Archive | Central Void
The section of the residence slopes up to the east, allowing the watchmaker to view the sunrise of each day. The linear hearth that connects the three parts of the house is punctuated by two kinetic towers that capture rain water with the aid of the roof’s pitch. This hearth houses the static aspects of the program and can be modulated to act as a bedroom, bathroom, closet, pantry, water tower, or observation platform. On the west side, pivoting windows are directed by the prevailing winds, creating a space which fluctuates with each minute, hour, day, and season.
The section of the archive divides the building into three parts: individual reading space, books, and central circulation. The double helix stair wraps around a central void of natural light, allowing one to ascend up through the hanging bookshelves to the sundial which punctuates the space. The building uses waffle slabs with circular coffers to achieve 18’ cantilevers and to minimize columns, maximizing natural light and unobstructed views towards the central space.
The Residence | Water Clock
The Archive | Analemmatic Skylight
The residence has two kinetic towers (water clocks) that are controlled by the specific weather conditions of Gasworks. Acting in a similar capacity to a water tower, these iterations of a chimney use gravity and water to turn a waterwheel which then raises two steel doors, revealing the process and a space for contemplation.
The central void is punctuated by a 28’ diameter analemmatic sundial, recalling the existing sundial that preceded it on top of Kite Hill. An analemmatic sundial is one in which the body is the gnomon, casting its shadow from differing points based on the time of year. Brass stairs and finishes reflect the light and shadow from this translucent skylight down and through the space.
The Workshop | Translucent Grids The use of a structural system proportioned off of the human body allows one to engage the space in many ways while simultaneously highlighting the variation of a body in space. This variation is guided by visual connection generated from vertical pass-throughs and translucent floors.
The Workshop | ‘Modular Man’ The section of the workshop is modulated off of a 6’ grid derived from the body with columns spaced at 24’ O.C., 12’ floor to ceiling heights, 12’ divisions of working vs circulation space, and a 3’x3’ floor grid. Ribbon windows are located on the fabrication and design levels, from 30”-72” while the assembly floor has 30”x30” projecting windows scaled for individual use of a watchmaker, each framing the body while both standing and sitting.
Gasworks Park Gas Works Park is located on the North Lake Union peninsula, in the Freemont neighborhood of Seattle. The site has a rich history and long lineage of re-use, taking the forms of a fishing village, trash dump, gasification plant, and public park. The industrial past of the site is still present in the re-purposed towers, stacks, pipes and sheds. These industrial remnants offer insight into the traditions and processes of both making and evolution, acting as physical vestiges of time.
On April 22nd, this virtual lobby wall was submitted in lieu of the third Cowgill lobby pinup planned for April 2020.
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This thesis was awarded the Virginia Tech School of Architecture 2020 Pella Prize, recognized as the stand-out undergraduate thesis project in design excellence out of the 127 students of the graduating class on April 29th, 2020. A special thanks to my unrelenting and always inspiring thesis advisor: Hilary Bryon
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Polyvalent Time A Horologium for Einstein’s Dreams Christopher Cheng Undergraduate Thesis Documentation May 2020 Thesis Advisor: Hilary Bryon Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University College of Architecture and Urban Studies School of Architecture + Design
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? Bodily Fluid ?
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Mechanical
Natural
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