the breath of architecture
For m y m o ther, m y fa ther, m y bro ther, a n d Wen d y
Š 2014 Cornell Chu All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. Printed and bound in the United States. I would like to thank Hansy Better and David Ross for their care, support, and advice. I would also like to give thanks to Wendy Hoffman, who have unconditionally supported me throughout this academic period.
Contents 7 abstract 9 introduction 10 sensory 17
emptiness
- the helmet - the bench
26 materiality - trace - presence, absence - deconstruction, reconstruction 32 meaningness - life - memory - imagination 40
community center of the city
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Often times I wondered why certain architecture moves me and others do not. What are the qualities that manages to evoke my emotion? In those spaces, I feel a sense of life, spirit, or soul that is hard to describe or define. How can I reproduce it in my own design, to move others like how I was moved? The thesis consists of four parts, sensory, emptiness, memory, and meaningness. It is a collection of experiments and imaginations explored through drawings and built forms in attempt to investigate how we experience architecture and to breathe soul into the life of architecture.
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sensory sketch of how sound travels within the helmet
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Sensory When I am walking through an old house, the sound of the wooden floor creaking beneath, it is a sign of the house breathing. The intensity of the echo reveals the size of the room. Hearing is as important as seeing. Our body experiences our surrounding through all our sensory working together, though the eyes, ears, nose, skin, and tongue. As Juhani Pallasmma writes,
“our bodies and movements are in constant interaction with the environment the world and the self inform and redefine each other constantly. � 1 The first project is to create an inhabitable object to amplify the sense of the intangible, such as hearing. I created a helmet-like object for one to inhabit. There is a small opening on the very top of the helmet, to allow light and sound to enter and spiral down the space within. When you are inside the head piece, the user concentrates on the acoustic of the surrounding sound. Light and sound from the outside filter through to the interior, creating an echoing sound and shadows within the void. The helmet heightens the awareness of the human senses to our surrounding.
1 Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Chichester: Wiley-Academy, 2005. 40. Print
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sensory interior testing of the senses
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sensory film stills in 20 minutes
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“Architecture is the void; it is up to you to define it.”
Luigi Snozzi
Emptiness Emptiness is like the pause between each breath. It is nothing, yet it is also something. It is the pause before emptiness becomes life. In Architecture, it is a space without program, a space of possibilities. My goal for this experiment is to create a piece of furniture that forms a space of quietness, sobriety, as a counterpoint to the stressful and busy outside world. A wooden bench is constructed (presence), which will allow a space of pause (absence) for the visitors at Woodsgerry gallery. The empty, non programmatic space heightens the awareness of sensory experience. The void provides room to experience the passing of time, light and shadow, weather, seasons, and nature, between the self and others. 1
1 Watsuji, Tetsuro, and Robert Edgar Carter. Watsuji Tersuro’s Rinrigaku: Ethics in Japan. Albany: States U of New York, 1996. 343. Print
installation on emptiness
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sensory connection with nature
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emptiness within ourselves
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Cut + Stitch
materiality of trace
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Materiality In Architecture, material has the ability to tell the story of a building, such as where the material is from, how and who made it. Like a vessel, material is able to contain time, culture, memory of place, process, meaning, etc. It is a physical link between the past, present and future. Trace The experiment of cutting and welding the metal plate is to investigate the process of making in relation to soul. The repetitive process of cutting and stitching leaves trace of the story behind the process and adds another layer of texture (life) to the metal. The constructed process gives new meaning and relationship between the object and the fabricator. Presence, Absence Similar to artist Rachel Whiteread’s best-known artwork, House, the second experiment investigates the material memory. The texture of the cast (presence) reveals the material of the wooden geometry (absence). The surface captures an instant moment of what was once there, as an embedded memory of the past. Deconstruction, Reconstruction In the third experiment, I deconstructed the “bench” from the gallery and used the wood to reconstruct a display table. The memory of the “bench” is embedded into the new object with another function, creating a new relationship between the past, present, and future.
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materiality of trace
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through the repetitive process of cut and stitch, the stepping of the form reveals the properties of materiality
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materiality presence, absence
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construction, reconstruction materiality
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Meaningness A song can be meaningful to someone because of a memorable event A person can be meaningful to someone due to the bond of friendship A place can be meaningful to someone because of its historic moment in time When a person puts their heart and soul into what they do, their work becomes meaningful to themselves or to others. Meaning is developed between the self and with others. It comes from many things, symbols, events, places, emotions, and in everyday life. We treasure and try to remember the things that are meaningful to us. Drawing series: meaning through life meaning through memory meaning through imagination
life meaningness
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memory meaningness
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imagination meaning
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Not a check list
Sensory sensory is how we experience the present. It is about how we move, look, smell, hear and feel of all things we experience through sensory among ourselves and with others to create meaning and memory through time
Emptiness emptiness is a space without program, a space of possibilities, of life emptiness leaves a room for noticing the passage of time, light and shadow, weather, seasons, and nature to take place within ourselves and with others
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Materality material has the ability to tell the story of a building. Like a vessel, it is able to contain time, culture, memory, process and meaning material is the physical link between the past, present and future
Meaningness when a person puts their heart and soul into what they do, their work becomes meaningful to themselves or to others meaningfulness can be developed through our everyday life, with ourselves and with others meaning exist in time, space, history, place, symbols, event and etc
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As a designer, how can I create architecture that touch people’s heart? The following exercise attempt to provide the user the opportunity to create their own memory, meaning, and sensory experience through the use of space. The site is located somewhere in Asia in a dense neighborhood. The existing site was once a parking lot, currently in the process of being redeveloped into a community center. Three thousand people lives around this site. The construction period of the community center will be flexible, and will be built in phases and different parts, depending on the current economic and social needs of the time. Meetings will be set up for constant dialogue between the general public and the designers, to help understand the public opinion and to increase people’s awareness and participation. The first three phases of the programs include the space of listening, space of eating and the space of reading. In additional to professional builders, volunteer programs are set up during the construction, to invite the local residences to join the building process. This brings a new meaning to the users when they experience the space. Local construction methods are implemented along with using local materials. Recycling and reusing demolished building material is one way to include the past in the reconstructed present.
42 Space of hearing In the space of listening, one can hear the music from afar. Not knowing where the sounds are coming from, one gravitate towards the music to find out more. The individual music performances with different instruments are merge together, traveling up the hall, then to the tower and disperse into the bustling city landscape. The organic shaped performance pods allows people to share and discover music with each other. Through the speaker on the top of the tower, the music merges and becomes the background music of the city. Narrative A little boy is preparing for his music performance at school the next day. Whenever he is nervous, he would come to the pods to practice for the public. As he grew older, he became a famous musician. He continue to practice here, at the same pod, whenever he have a performance the next day.
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Space of Eating
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Food is the essence of life. It is about how the food is prepared, how it is transported, and how it is shared among people. The open space is a flex space to promote food events and activities that stimulate the human senses. In this setting, the idea of sharing is emphasized. An oval table is created for 120 people. The food is only served on one end of the table and passed along like a family dinner. Narrative A couple just moved into the city and decided to join this food event during the weekend. The food was passed along from their left side to the right. Not only the food is passed from one end to another, like an intimate family dinner, but also passed around during the meal. At the end of the dinner, the new couple learned that their neighbor is also new to the city. They have made plans to explore the city together in the near future.
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Space of Reading: In the modern age, libraries are gaining importance in the society. It has similar symbolic meanings such as churches or temples, where individuals search for their inner self and exchange for knowledge. The geometric form of this reading space is separated by inside sphere and outside. The inside “void� is a platform for the readers to exchange for knowledge, communicate, and to interact with each other. The outside is the reading space; several external cores link all the levels together. Narrative A high school student enters into the reading space; inside the sphere he is able to see and locate where all the book are. In the sphere of knowledge, classmates discuss the books they have read before and recommend books to each other.
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R i s d Thes i s D ecemb er 2 0 1 3 - Ju n e 2 0 1 4
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