Water Tower Kinetic Machine Danai Manolesou ,
thesis project supervisors: Kostas Daflos,
Assistant Professor NTUA Scool of Architecture
Vanda Chalyvopoulou,
Assistant Professor at TI of Athens
thesis project: - an architectural object converted to a kinetic machine in order to become a fundamental part of a game process - an architectural rapprochement that leaves the initial object and site intact, while affecting them in a lateral way through the educative engagement of the community -
This project deals with an example of public architecture: a water tower situated in a residual space of undefined use. The water tower of Rio, a small town north east of the city of Patras, in Greece, attracted my interest because of its contradictory relationship to the local community. Even though it is a building of an unusual form, of a privileged location and of a very important function, it seems completely absent in residents’ everyday activities.
The area surrounding the water tower is the outcome of recent urban planning changes between the 1970s and the 1990s: a new national road, a university and a hospital have been constructed during this time. In close proximity, the water tower is framed by three elements holding together in fragile balance: a hidden garage whose activity occupies most of the space, a peculiar abandoned square that is used occasionally by the community -during the national holidays-, and finally, two immigrants that radically “redesign� the space as they convert abandoned cars to sheds and the space next to the square to a mini open market. I notice that the two immigrants make use of the space in a comparably subversive way, while their national and religious identities contradict with the established national and religious symbols of the community. Through a poetic use of the elements of the site and the ways they relate to each other, I attempt to reconstruct the water tower as a kinetic machine that is activated through water circulation initiated by the performers.
In reference to Max Ernst’s machinic figures, I experimentally apply a “machine vision” (Hal Foster, Prosthetic Gods) not to the human body but to the initial architectural object, so that it is converted to a process. This transformation of the building into a machine/process stems from a merging of various disciplines such as site specific art, performance studies and mechanics. It is an attempt to view architecture as a sum of separate processes, such as preparation, repetition and execution, which interact with each other in time defined ways (Richard Schechner, Performance Studies). While restoring the water tower’s basic function (water circulation and temporal restoration in height) I design a new object that is activated only through a game process/performance at a distance from the initial architectural object. This game process could be performed at the playground yard of the community’s school, through the engagement of both children and tutors. Keeping the present physical state of the water tower and the site intact, I attempt to affect them in a lateral way through the performed event that activates a part of the community. However, the solution I propose is intentionally not merely an object but a “function” (Miwon Kwon, One Place After the Other) that can be performed/repeated in different sites, making connections between them.
The proposed mechanism is supplied with water from a pump. A small vessel inside the water-tower machine is filling with water until it drops. Subsequently, this vertical movement is transformed to horizontal, as the wooden wheels begin to roll. The vessel returns to its initial point as the two “arms� pivot exerting an opposite force. At the point of pivot there is a small sensor guided motor to enforce the pivot. At the same time, this motor can reverse the orientation of the horizontal movement of the machine. For the event to begin two or more mechanisms are needed. The first mechanism is supplied with water from pump A and empties the water in vessel B. The second mechanism is supplied with water from pump B and empties the water in vessel A. This process makes a circle that can grow as much bigger as the number of participants. We create the conditions of a game that demands a certain degree of synchronized movements from the performers. From the moment someone activates the first mechanism, the second performer is indispensible so that the water doesn’t overflow the vessels.
Finally, this is a mechanism that waits to be optimized by the performers/ participants through their educative engagement with its construction. This is why the parts that it is composed of are designed so that they don’t exceed the size of an A4 sheet in order to be easily printed in a casual printer and afterwards edited. Potentially, there could be different versions of the first initial “function�, inspired from similar sites where a water tower is installed.
Testing model 1, June 2012 participants: Maria, Dennis, Androniki, Lydia model’s materials: wood
Interactive installation at Agromusic Festival, Lakonia, Greece, 2013 participants: Flesh physical Theatre model’s materials: wood, pvc