Collapsing Space by Nick Rebstadt

Collapsed Space Lifecycle Major Project â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Zeitgeist Pavilion Nick Rebstadt Semester One, 2011

Contents A Tale Of Two Sites

Merging Ecologies, Subnatures & New Nature Zeitgeist Statement

27 31

Trees, Time, Lifecycle and New Materials Structure & Observation Wallpaper & Growing Medium Floor Tiles

33 35 43 55

The Zeitgeist Pavilion

Chatter â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Dialogue Between Interior & Exterior

The Domestic, The Uncanny, The Sensual & The Site Collapsing Together

77 85

A Tale of Two Sites

The two sites that were chosen at the beginning, greatly influenced the development of the design and the conceptual thinking and approach of the design. The first being North Wharf, at the west end of the Yarra, the site was a vacant public space between the World Trade Centre Riverfront Development and an old Warehouse at the end of a pier. The appeal of the site came from the poetic way in which the sun interacted with it. It rose over the new World Trade Centre development, while it set over the old shipping warehouse to the west. The sun rose on the ‘new’ Information Economy and set on a past Industrial Economy. The solar patterns seemed to suggest a way of viewing the site in a sense of an understanding of the new and old city. There seemed to be a gap between these past and future ideas of what the city and the site could be. It was only a matter of time till the site was overrun by the ‘new’. It seemed to scream for a proposal of an augmented view of what ‘new’ could be, a Zeitgeist. The second site was on the Southbank Footbridge. In particular, a very much-disused viewing platform for what was once a new Southbank Development. Once again, the redundant program of the public site appealed to my sensibilities. It needed a new purpose. This site was intriguing due to its dynamism. It was essentially a transient space that facilitated the daily migration of commuters to and from work. The bridge was an intersection between the natural and artificial lifecycles that engaged within the Yarra environment. It also demanded a stark, architectural response, which pushed my thinking towards developing materials.

Merging Ecologies, Subnatures & New Nature

I began to look at the types of ecology in the urban environment, the union between the artificial urban environment, (the city being in a state of constant flux) and the natural ecosystems and lifecycles that surround and engage it. Essentially, I was interested in the urban context as an ‘ecosystem’ on a whole and how that could possibly manifest itself. I looked at subnatures initially as a way of understanding how natural ecology could infiltrate the environment as a side effect of the way in which we live or construct our environments. Elements like weeds, dust, mud and mould were all undesirable effects of the urban environment; they are shunned but are all products of living, time and inhabitation, and ALL have deeper connotations. Once again, the ideas of ‘moment’ and aging emerged. Tim Low in New Nature suggests an adaptation to the environment in which we live. This ‘New Nature’ of which natural and artificial systems merge in they’re continuous flux. For all the ‘ecology’ that infiltrated the atmospheres in which we live, there is also the perception of those ecologies. The idea of inhabitation requires time. For me, the science of sustainability and our perception of it were inseparable. We explore and understand our environments both “objectively” and through the phenomena we encounter “subjectively”. Which was how I approached the site and my research.

CITIES WERE CREATED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION; ESSENTIALLY THEY ARE ZEITGEIST OF A TIME THAT HAS PASSED. SINCE THEN, THE CITY HAS DEVELOPED INTO A VAST AND COMPLEX ECOSYSTEM THAT IS SIMULTANEOUSLY BOTH SHAPED BY MAN, THE ELEMENTS, AND THE VERY CITY ITSELF. THE CITY IS A SYSTEM OF COMPLEX AND SHIFTING INDEPENDENT AND INTERTWINING RELATIONS. THE ORGANISM OF THE CITY, WHICH CAN BE COMPARED TO NOTHING THAT WE HAVE EVER KNOWN, IS IN CONSTANT FLUX. IT IS AN ASSEMBLAGE OF ENTITIES THAT EFFECT AND AFFECT EACH OTHER.1 IN THIS CONTEXT, THE CITY DOES AND CANNOT BE MEASURED BY A SIMPLE EQUATION – THAT IMPLIES TOTAL PREDICTION AND CONTROL – BUT RATHER OBSERVED NOT MEASURED BY SNAPSHOTS OF FLEETING MOMENTS, DURATION AND DOCUMENTATION OF CYCLES IN WHAT HAS BECOME AN EVERCHANGING LANDSCAPE. ABOVE ALL, THE CITY IS A THING OF DEEP CONTRASTS – PAST AND PRESENT, FAST AND SLOW, CYCLIC AND CHAOTIC. IT BOTH IS INFLUENCED AND IS INFLUENCES. THE ZEITGEIST OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY IS THE WAY THE LIFECYCLES OF THE CITY INTEGRATE, RELATE AND CHANGE TO THOSE IN AND AROUND THEM. THE CITY IS NO LONGER CONTROLLED, BUT WORKED WITH. 1

McGaw, J & Vance, A. “Urban Discourses and Natural Networks” Junctures, vol 10: June 2008. P.11

Trees, Time, Lifecycles & New Materials

Structure & Observation— How might a pavilion look over time? The lifecycle of the pavilion and the building materials structures that I developed for it were intimately entwined in the notion of the space’s lifecycle. Essentially, how materials both grew and broke down in different ecosystems pushed my design work into formal experiments and explorations. I thought about the leaf as a building block in which I could build my own ecosystem (pavilion). The leaves that fall from the Elm trees along the Yarra decay and breakdown into the soil, releasing nutrients allowing more life to grow. It was from this intimate understanding of the lifecycle of a tree that my design work began to push forward. I began to see the construction of the pavilion as a tree’s “system” or lifecycle might work. In particular, how it’s life hinges on the structural trunk (timber) and the leaves and bark that collect the energy that it needs to survive. This led to the exploration of the forms that make up plant life, and in particular, capturing the forms of the life in their moments of decay to expose their structure. The following pages show excerpts from those experiments of capturing, preserving and documenting the delicate and fleeting forms of decay. Those moments where the waste of the plant begins to give back what it had taken.

Wallpaper & Growing Mediumâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; I pushed my work forward into the construction of a cladding/material to build with. The growing medium or cladding is roughly made up of 70% plant material and 30% paper binding with a small amount of other decorative and functional additives such as leaves, petals or ash. The addition of ash to the compound allowed for the cladding to become a little more rigid and less like paper in materiality. As a general rule, the more decorative, wallpaper-like cladding were specified for the interior, while the thicker, rigid and stronger (plain) cladding types for the outside. The development of this material was in conjunction with a push to create an adequate building material and to mimic the role of the leaves in the environment.

44 Leaf, Craft Paper Binder & Rose Petals Maple

45 Maple Leaf, Craft Paper Binder & Grass Seeds

46 Leaf, Newsprint Binder & Yellow Maple Maple

47 Maple Leaf, Newsprint Binder & Wisteria Leaves

48 Leaf, Newsprint Binder & Blue Food Dye Maple

49 Maple Leaf, Newsprint Binder & Rose Food Dye

50 Turf, Newsprint Binder Fresh

51 Fresh Turf, Newsprint Binder & Rose Petals

52 Leaf, Newsprint Binder, Black Ink & Rose Petals Maple

53 Maple Leaf, Newsprint Binder & Leaves

Floor Tilesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; The tiles that were developed were based on the idea of mimicking concrete and creating a kind of poetic soil. The compound is 50% ash and 50% clay that have been cast into tiles (for the purpose of the model plaster was used). The role of the tiles in the ecology of the pavilion is to act as a base, initially something that mimics the solidity of the concrete slab that forms the base of the site. Over time and ware, the tiles break down into dust, which is kept moist via the irrigation system and acts as a soil from which plant life can take root. The tiles are important in this sense as they act as a metaphor for the program of the pavilion.

The Zeitgeist Pavilion

Chatter - Dialogue Between the Interior & Exterior

Model of South Wall-Bark-Backed Vertical Garden System 59

‘Why Can’t My Pavilion Be Like a Tree?’ The lifecycle of the pavilion is based roughly on the seasons of which it will be in existence. Much like the lifecycle of a tree (with a very short life). During spring the pavilion will look as though it is new. The surfaces on the exterior will be clad evenly in growing medium, allowing for a smooth clean architectural aesthetic. As if it were brand new – because it is. The interior will be clad in the decorative wallpaper mediums and the two end walls will be covered in fresh flowers. Over the period of the summer, the exterior cladding will begin to degrade into the soil that backs it (releasing nutrients) and the seeds embedded in the walls will begin to grow. As the Exterior surfaces of the pavilion grow, the ‘preserved’ interior will begin to dry out. At the same time the floor of the structure will begin to break down into dust, which will be kept moist from the wind pump irrigation system. We begin to see complimentary effects occur. Over the autumn, as the weather becomes more temperate and moist, the interior will begin to decay as the exterior also begins to falter. The moisture will allow moulds, weeds and fungi to take hold. The winter months and the last months of the program of the pavilion will further neutralise the threshold between the interior and exterior spaces. Effectively, the pavilion and its differing ecologies become infiltrated by exterior forces and neutralise with the environment around it, thus creating a new form. What the program of the space does is illustrate ideas about ecology and intersection and interrelationships in the way it changes over the course of the year. It begins as a designed form and ends fully integrated into the site and it’s surroundings. Thus projecting the Zeitgeist from an ecologic/sustainable point of view.

Interior West Facing, Spring 62

Exterior, Stage One

Interior, South Facing, Summer 66

Exterior, Stage Two 68

Interior, East Facing, Autumn 70

Exterior, Stage Three 72

Interior South Facing, Winter 74

The Domestic, The Uncanny, The Sensual & The Site

As you approach the space, the profile takes on a familiar form, like an extension of the warehouse behind it, but like something else too. Cinnamon, pepper, honey and coffee, smells all familiar to you, Domestic motifs line the walls; wallpaper and patterns resonate with that of an old English cottage. William Morris and the Arts and Craft Movement. The back wall is covered in drying flowers, The ceiling looks like a canopy, the roof like a greenhouse. You lie there, smelling and staring at the sky through the ornamental leaves that diffuse and frame it. Watching the world, immersed in your environment. The spatial experience of the pavilion is that of nostalgic domesticity embedded within the industrial site. This is important because it is this experience that you initially connect with. The appearance, smells, sights and tactile qualities that form the interior resonate with the domestic homeliness that we find the most comforting. The pavilion links these domestic signifiers with the merging and meshed ecologies of nature, urban and domestic environment. The domestic is what we know the best; it is our home.

Maple Leaf, Newsprint Binder & Cinnamon Scent 84

The domestic home is an ecology of it’s own. However, it can no longer be separate from the exterior forces and systems that we engage with, and engage with us on a daily basis. In his lecture about Subnatures at RMIT, David Gissien described one of the potential futures of space as that the different views on it – he described as ‘program/ecology’ and space as ‘mystery’ – would collapse together, forming a new concept based on both. Space is not simply a ‘system’ or a sustainable program, but something that we experience. My explorations into the forms and workings of the ecologies of the city and nature over the past semester, moments and experiences, the environment and sustainability, existence and perception are all related. They can’t be separated. My pavilion is an attempt to understand how things might ‘collapse together’.

Canopy Lighting Model 89