IN NO PLACE by Dea Trapaidze

IN NO PLACE DEA TRAPAIDZE

LINES

Simple Line

Dashed Line

Dotted Line

Direction Line

Curved Line

CONCEPT

What is line? According to a basic dictionary, it is a mark or a stroke long in proportion to its breadth, made with pen, pencil, tool, etc. on a surface. Lines can vary by their forms, shapes, colors, types, etc. But the definition of Line cannot be so simple. While a line is commonly understood simply as the mark as above, a line has the potential to articulate and produce spatial differences. What are the characteristics that distinguish Line? Maybe width, length and direction, but what if we add perception. Is line real or abstract, or where is the line between these two. In my mind, Lines are neither, not real nor abstract, or perhaps more productively, both – real and abstract at the same time. In this diploma project, I am interested to explore this dual nature of the line, understand when abstract transitions into real, or in opposite. In which conditions they can exist together and under what circumstances they are mutually exclusive. In architecture an abstract line that is drawn on a sheet of paper, someday becomes a line of a building or infrastructure. It is a long and complicated way from one stage to another but the single, quite abstract, becomes a very touchable reality one day. It is through architecture that a single line takes on material weight. Where the stroke finds expression in stone, and the dash becomes a division. Architecture is where Deleuze’s “Abstract Machine” ceases to be a metaphor or thought experiment and becomes a simple description of praxis – where the line and its materialization become a unity. Through this essay, I will suggest that we can productively understand lines through four primary types: Administrative, real, representational and perceived. More significant than either of these categories, however, is the way in which one category transitions into another - through the actions of designing and building architecture.

ADMINISTRATIVE LINES

Implied Line

True Administrative Line

Delimiting Line

Hardening of the Line 3

CONCEPT

ADMINISTRATIVE Cadastral red lines, Easement, Usufruct lines, borders, etc. can be called administrative lines. These lines mostly define the ownership and the land’s limits. They determine who can use land, for what period of time and under what conditions. Administrative lines are invisible boundaries in which we operate specific rules, so we people, as well as architecture, have to obey them. But instead of it being the tool to help us in the designing process, it becomes the design itself, as everyone tries to maximize the existing rules to their limits. Administrative lines are trying to create order in a chaos, urban planners decide from early stage, what kind of urbanization (Neighborhoods, districts, towns, cities, etc.) would be better for people living in that area, taking into consideration the culture, the terrain, the climate, etc. Only urban planners are not capable of designing each and every building or infrastructure, so they just create some restraints that should help architects to decide what kind of architecture is relevant to a specific location. These restraints may not be the obstacle for a creative mind but instead the tool to shape the idea faster and in a more specific way. ‘Rules adjust the general degree of determination (coercion). Found within these rules, therefore, are certain freedoms. Pure freedom does not exist: at most, we enjoy restricted freedoms. When rules are in force, certain freedoms are automatically valid as well.’1 - Grand Urban Rules, Alex Lehnerer I would say, when there are no rules, there is no freedom. Besides, the overall image of space depends on each object individually. All these objects, taken together, create spaces, districts, cities and administrative rules try to balance them.

ADMINISTRATIVE LINES

Cadastral Lines - Tbilisi

CONCEPT

Easement Lines - Tbilisi

ADMINISTRATIVE LINES

CONCEPT

In Tbilisi where urbanization is chaotic, administrative restraints are new, as Tbilisi is a post-soviet, post-war city that went through times when no rules existed. In soviet times, the property was collective, so individuals did not have the motive to expand or develop their own territories, in addition, it was very dangerous to have something valuable, because it may cost you a life, as the level of crimes reached its peak, after the Soviet Union collapsed. Administrative lines changed overtime, due to political ideology, country politics, strict law system, etc. That is why I call it a cultural phenomenon, as in soviet times everything was public, even very private spaces. For this reason, people, who have lived in the era when the word “property” did not exist, tend to somehow highlight their spaces, put a signature on it. I would like to suggest categories of Administrative lines: ‘hard’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘soft’ lines. Under ‘soft’ lines, I would include usufruct and easement lines, while in ‘intermediate’ category would perfectly fit the setback line. Last but not least, I strongly believe that the cadastral red line is a ‘hard’ administrative line that has the major impact on forming the areas. Cadastral maps should be invisible in inhabited areas, but at the same time, they a have colossal effect if they find themselves into fences. While, paradoxically, in a chaotic urbanization, it is even harder to tell where these lines are, as more rules are forcing the owners to erase the ‘property’ lines. In this project, I am interested to explore more about the transition between cadastral red line into real, explore more about abovementioned – dual nature of the line, being abstract and real - simultaneously. What our city would look like if cadastral lines were real fences and how can these invisible lines someday dictate the inhabited area what form it should gain.

REAL LINES

CONCEPT

REAL LINES Real lines can be, paradoxically, the most unrecognizable lines, as we exist with them for such a long time that they become merely unnoticed. For instance, power lines are everywhere, they transmit electrical energy that we use constantly. Modern era, era of technology is dependent on electrical energy, how do we get them in our location? Through power lines that are quite visible but our mind tends to not notice them. What is modern era? Can we call it an era of lines? I reckon that this kind of definition should fit the era which we live in. Nowadays the art tries to become as abstract as possible. The abstraction gives the opportunity to get rid of additional, decorative details that do not benefit the functionality of a structure; maybe the best tool for abstraction is through lines. One of the most visible real lines are fences. They once again emphasize the above mentioned, ownership subject. And besides, they visually create a line that dictates to us what to do. Maybe roads play an important role too, as they dictate to us how to move, how to reach certain destinations, they mostly coerce us to choose ‘favorite’ routes. There can be other categories for real but also a bit imaginary lines that are created by pavement edges, curbs, medians, etc. It is satisfying how people are waiting for the bus, waiting to cross the street, maybe every person’s childhood memory - balancing on the curb meant feeling like a champion for the rest of the day.

REAL LINES

CONCEPT

Everywhere we go, there are plenty of different lines. Building lines, infrastructural lines, road lines, water lines, etc. These lines can successfully be translated to representational lines, but maybe the opposite would make even more sense, because mostly every detail, from minor to major, which people add to an already existing environment is planned beforehand. Representational lines transition into real just in front of our eyes.

REPRESENTATIONAL LINES

Iso Lines - Tbilisi

CONCEPT

REPRESENTATIONAL LINES Representational lines play a significant role in how we receive and acknowledge information presented to us. Architecture offers the representational lines in its richest way, as architecture is dependent on representational visuals. Best examples of representational lines may be Isolines that are the non-existent, imaginary lines that we create to better understand the terrain condition, which is supported by a complex calculation system. Or just a simple building plan, which provides information about rooms’ distribution, program or area. We see these lines only on paper, it may be real, but mostly, they serve one purpose - to simplify the overall image and sole accentuate the most significant purpose of the drawing.

Figure Ground Plan - Tbilisi 16

REPRESENTATIONAL LINES

Road Lines - Transposition Of Representation

CONCEPT

Representational lines are the language for architects, as writers express their emotions through words/letters, architects show their work with the help of representational lines. These lines are never real, but just the simplified version of something soon to be real. “Recognition of the drawing’s power as a medium turns out, unexpectedly, to be recognition of the drawing’s distinctness from and unlikeness to the thing that is represented, rather than its likeness to it, which is neither as paradoxical nor as dissociative as it may seem”2 – Translation from the Drawing to Building and Other Essays, Robin Evans Representational lines are the basis for architecture, first steps, but the most important steps of a building. Representational lines help us perceive the world as it was facile—to bring the profusion of detail, complexity, dynamism, etc. into a recognizable and workable format. “a large part of this history would be concerned with the gap between drawing and building. In it the drawing would be considered not so much a work of art or a truck for pushing ideas from place to place, but as the locale of subterfuges and evasion that one way or another get round the enormous weight of convention that has always been architecture’s greatest security and liability”2- Translation from the Drawing to Building and Other Essays, Robin Evans Transition from one line to another, transition from imaginary to real, transition from visual to emotion is the most significant part of our thinking. What we see and what we perceive ?

PERCEIVED LINES

City Mall

Vaja-pshavela Avenue

Saakadze Square

Sports Palace Iveria Hotel

Hero Philharmony Square Concert Hall

Republic Square

Freedom Square

My route from Freedom Square to Vaja-Phavela Avenue

CONCEPT

PERCEIVED LINES So, whereas real lines are tangible but strangely go unnoticed, perceived lines define the experiential grid in which we operate. They are the lines through which we make categories, articulate distinctions, and define qualitative differencea that are not simple to delineate. Perceived lines may be the most subjective ones, as they are dependent on many things such as cultures, socium (social environment), quality of life, etc. As already mentioned, people’s minds are built to think in some kind of grid, find the logic, search for the connections, there is exactly where the lines come to help us determine what to do, in which way to go, where it is safe and where it is dangerous. In my mind, perceived lines are part of the boundary system, which we use to categorize our way of thinking. Even in verbal communication, we use phrase - ‘don’t cross the line’ that means don’t behave in an unacceptable way for certain moment (situation). Where are the real boundaries of districts, what kind of way we should behave there and how it should behave with us? Were starts Vake and ends Vera? Where starts our journey and where it ends?

PERCEIVED LINES

CONCEPT

The closest explanation to the perceived lines may be Henri Lefebvre’s categorization: “spatial practice, representations of space, representational space” as they all taken together can somehow describe the perceived lines. Since early childhood we imagine the world in some kind of way and mostly, it is very hard to change this fictional constructed world. We even create rules for them, rules to help us operate in a more sensible and quick way. “The social practice presupposes the use of the body: the use of the hands, members and sensory organs, and the gestures of work as of activity unrelated to work.”3- The Production Of Space, Henri Lefebvre Every country, every city, every district, every neighborhood, every building has their own rules that visitors have to obey, well maybe, like to obey. In our perception, the real world is categorized into different types of information - I would say into different types of products we use on a daily basis.

LINES IN SPACE: INFRASTRUCTURE

Water

Gas

Electricity

CONCEPT

LINES IN SPACE: INFRASTRUCTURE What do we think are the minimum demands for life? People from contemporary society would answer this question with the following incomplete listing: water, electricity, gas, etc. But how do they reach us, our locations, our homes, our workspaces? Are they connected to each other, does the accident in the farthest part of the city should affect my supply of electricity/water/gas? We can find answers in ‘infrastructure’, which is the collection of systems and facilities that maintain the sustainable functionality of households, firms, etc. They offer service to different areas. Roads, water supply, sewers, telecommunications, etc. are Infrastructural lines, mostly underground, but sometimes even more visible above the ground. Infrastructural lines take part in planning the new building’s location, communications and other significant details. “As a ‘bundle’ of materially networked, mediating infrastructures, transport, street, communications, energy and water system constitute the largest and most sophisticated technological artefacts ever devised by humans…. These vast lattices of technological and material connections have been necessary to sustain the ever-expanding demands of contemporary societies for increasing levels of exchange, movement and transaction across distance.” 4 – Splintering Urbanism, Stephen Graham, Simon Marvin. In my opinion, Infrastructure is the first sign of urbanization. These lines help, define and form the city growth.

LINES IN SPACE: INFRASTRUCTURE

Electricity - Tbilisi

Gas - Tbilisi

CONCEPT

Water - Tbilisi

Why can’t we have infrastructure everywhere? Why is there no infrastructure in every part of Tbilisi? The cost of the infrastructural objects are quite high and as the city municipality is the responsible one for these types of product, they calculate what kind of city grow is sensible. For inhabited areas, infrastructure is essential as it provides the minimum demand for life and not expanding the infrastructure beyond specific space can effectively stop urban sprawl.

MATERIAL QUALITY OF INFRASTRUCTURE

Stockholm

Vancouver

CONCEPT

Pratt

New York 28

DEMARCATING AN EDGE: ZEMO SAMGORI AND THE DEVELOPMENT BOUNDARY

Administrative Border - Tbilisi

Administrative Border Urban Development Contour 29

CONCEPT

Urban Development Contour - Tbilisi

DEMARCATING AN EDGE: ZEMO SAMGORI AND THE DEVELOPMENT BOUNDARY City borders are strongly connected to infrastructural solutions. Tbilisi has two invisible edges - Administrative Border and Urban Development Contour. Both these lines can easily be changed due to political, territorial or other types of causes. But still there are some specific contours that are hard to change, because these lines, of course, are adjusted to something real, touchable in the world. Where the real and the administrative line overlay one another. In my mind, the Zemo Samgori Canal is an administrative, visual, physical and metaphoric edge of the city of Tbilisi. This is the exact place where administrative, representational, real and perceived lines bundle together and transition into one another evenly.

DEMARCATING AN EDGE: ZEMO SAMGORI AND THE DEVELOPMENT BOUNDARY