AN ARCHITECTURE OF SHADOWS | Emma Henderson | Unit 1 _ Explorations Tutors: Andy Stoane & Neil Cunning
FA S T S L O W
PROCESS
1
2
3
METHODOLOGY
C O N T E X T U A L A N A LY S I S
E X P L O R AT I O N
temporalities and sensoria
garden and str eet
speed indexing
CASE STUDY
PRINCE’S STREET
RESEARCH
INFOGRAPHIC
GARDEN CYCLES
SHADOW STUDIES
SENSORIAL MAPPING
SOLAR PATTERNS
RETAIL INDEX
CASTLE ROCK
RESOLUTION
4
5
REINTRODUCTION
R E P R E S E N TAT I O N
mer ging fast and slow
a r eactive and hybridized circuit
DIAGRAMMATIC MODELS
PROPOSAL
HYPOTHETICAL LANDSCAPE SITING STRATEGY
P R E FA C E T he avant-g ar de of the 1960s, r ea ctin g to p a s s ive p a r ticip a tio n in s p a ce, s aw ar chitectur e’s potential to al ter s p a tia l p er ce p tio n . B y co m p a r is o n a r ch itectu r e o f th e 21st Centur y seems to endor s e f ixed s p a tia l co n ta in m en t a s r ea d ily a s it d id cen tu r ies ag o, co n s tr u ctin g ‘a r ch itectu r e a s o b ject’. Ar chitectur e’s r eactivity must m o r e p r es s in g ly f a ll in lin e with th e n eed f o r im m ed ia cy and r esponsiveness th a t h a s co m e f r o m m a s s m ed ia a n d g lo b a lis a tio n . T his br ief challeng es ar chitectu r e’s cu r r en t s ta tu s, by co n s tr u ctin g m eth o d o lo g ica l and analytical f r amewor ks th r o u g h wh ich a r ch itectu r a l p r o p o s a ls ca n b e co n s tr u cted acco r d in g to tem p o r a l in d exes.
1 METHODOLOGY temporalities & sensorial moments
CASE STUDY
|
INFOGRAPHIC
By exploring the temporal layers of Le Corbusier’s chapel at Fir miny, I attempted to discover 1. How each layer changes over time 2. How that change af f ects other layers 3. How the changes af f ect the body T hese three phenomena point to the r eacti vity of the architecture. T hese layers were redrawn as an infog raphic, which suspends the convention of re presenting physical thresholds and instead focuses on re presenting the discovered reactivity.
FIRMINY T he key temporal feature in this building arises from le Corbusier’s employment of light. 1. the light conditions chang e over time due to time of day, year and weather conditions. (e.g. light falls on the altar on Easter Sunday) 2. these chang es affect the jour ney Le Corbusier has constr ucted from ear thly to heavenly realm 3. the intention is to invoke specific sensorial reactions
the density of the lines represents the user density and the volume represents the intensity of the experience
2 C O N T E X T U A L A N A LY S I S remapping
PALIMPSEST | GARDEN CYCLES | SOLAR PATTERNS Building on the palimpsest, I considered the morphological effect of non-linear cyclical change present in the garden: seasonal change, solar patterns and the shadow cast by castle rock. Through these studies I developed on the discoveries made through the case study to inform temporal indexing and begin forming an attitude about how to merge the fast, homogeneous world of Prince’s Street with the slow, changeable world of the gardens.
PA L I M P S E S T T he
palimpsest
is
a
study
of
the
mor phological chang e over 250 years of a New Town block, that has come about as a resu lt of the prog rammatic chang e from residential to retail.
I applied the methodolog y developed in the case study to analyse the block through a temporal lens. I laid out a jour ney and used the infog raphic to map the New Town block experientially; comparing the experience in 1849 to 2014 and the var ying experiences of the seasons and day.
Kate Mclean interpretation of a smell-walk
Guy DeBord the naked city
psycho-g eog raphy ‘the study of precise laws and specific effects of the g eog raphical environment, consciously org anized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals’ (Guy DeBord, 1955)
Peter Cook way out west, Berlin
mor ning
midday
e vening
personal sensorial documentation of a jour ney thr ough the gardens
George Street
SENSORIAL JOURNEY OF NEW TOWN
Rose Street
Prince’s Street
edge of garden
gardens
inspiration for this came fr om the idea that ar chitectur e is not r ead statically but in motion. the Elgin marbles and entablatur es in classical ar chitectur e tell stories intended to be r ead ar ound the building . this image ‘r olls out’ a jour ney ar ound the new town. the water colour r e pr esents the dif f er ent senses and experiences and their intensity.
1. sea sona l c ha ng e
GARDEN CYCLES
2. sola r p a t t er ns a nd c a st le r ock sha d ow
CASTLE ROCK d r awin g th e va r ied co n d itio n s cr ea ted by th e cycles illu m in a ted th e s tr o n g p r es en ce o f C a s tle Ro ck o n th e s ite.
spring
SEASONAL EFFECT ON CASTLE ROCK SHADOW
summer
autumn
winter
LIGHT SEAM T hro u g h th e s h a d ow ex p lo r a tio n s I isola ted a s ectio n o f th e g a r d en th a t was m o s t a f f ected by C a s tle Ro ck a n d ex amin ed th e m ovem en t o f th e s h a d ow i n r ela tio n to a lin ea r jo u r n ey. T he discoveries infor med the early stag es of for m finding.
3 E X P L O R AT I O N S indexing
E X P L O R AT I O N S
| N AT U R A L L I G H T
study of a number of buildings illuminated various light conditions that can be employed to enhance a space.
1 . K a p y and S i mo Pa avi l ai nen tempor al phr ases tr ansf or m thr ou g hou t the day a s bea ms of lig ht cr eate pr ojections that mu ta te conti nu ou s l y 2 . L e Cor bu s i er the l i ght ca nons dir ect lig ht such that it acts a s a v i s u al cal endar 3 . A l va r Aal to the chu rch u nder g oes sequential animation as the s u n m oves acros s the s k y 4 . Li ght becomes the decorative medium, with bar s of lig ht s tr ea m i ng i n and the wri ti ng i l l uminating an entir e wall with the wor d s of the Qu ’ran
1 Pir kka la C h u r ch
2 C ha pel a t Fir mi ny
3 Vuoksenniska Chur ch
4 Al Ir s ya d M o s q u e
SHADOW BOX the shadow box’s filters may be chang ed in order to experiment with shading and lighting techniques. the fol l owi ng pag es i ndex the d i s cover ed condi ti ons accordi ng to s peed
N o r d ic Pavilio n , Sver r e Feh n
01 FILTERED LIGHT a/ low winter light reflected into space diffuse and constant condition b/ high midday summer light creates more direct patterns CONSTANT CONDITION | SLOW
An Tu r a s, Su th er la n d H u s s ey
02 REFRACTED LIGHT a/ water refracts light for a dynamic condition b/ seasonal effect activated in wet conditions CLIMATIC CHANGE |
SLOW/FAST
03 DIRECT LIGHT (wall) a/ shadows mutate with sun b/ space changes every constantly CONSTANT CHANGE |
FAST
04 DIRECT LIGHT (roof) a/ shadows mutate with sun b/ space changes every constantly CONSTANT CHANGE |
FAST
INDIRECT LIGHT | CONSTANT | SLOW
FILTERED LIGHT | SEASONAL | SLOW/FAST
DIRECT LIGHT | CHANGING | FAST
L I GHT I N D EX
SLOW | NO CHANGE | CONSTANT
SLOW/FAST | SEASONAL CHANGE | SEASONAL
FAST | FREQUENT CHANGE | CHANGING
RETAIL INDEX
4 REINTRODUCTION merging fast and slow
EXPERIENTIAL JOURNEY
RETAIL CONDITION
The overriding theme, arising from the case study, is about the sensoria; a sequence of experience forming a promenade architecturale. The garden’s conditions (sunlight, wind, rain, arboreal colours) provide a means by which the senses may be activated, forming a journey mutating with the day and year. The circuit exists in a symbiotic relationship with the garden’s conditions.
In the current retail circuit, the divorce from external conditions and complete control of internal conditions, feeding capitalist ideals and driving passive consumerism, makes people lose a sense of place and individuality.
‘mechanically engineered climates created spaces increasingly divorced from the outside’ ‘it created a homogeneous and undifferentiated field of shopping that was quickly exhausting the interest of the public’ - Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping -
GARDEN CONDITION
RESPONSE
The temporalities and cycles of the garden, slow and unpredictable, contrast with the fast yet predictable temporalities of Prince’s Street. Thus a window of opportunity presents itself to challenge and alter preconceived notions of shopping by merging the two temporalities.
Responding to the conditions of both Prince’s Street and the gardens, and employing discovered temporal indexes and the idea of a promenade architecturale (le Corbusier), my proposal emerges as a subversion of the current linear, controlled and homogeneous retail circuit. It breaks from the monotony as a design that is responsive to the flux of the gardens. Architecture is no longer static object but a mutating and transient space, allowing shoppers to regain a sense of place and individuality.
‘the promenade would be designed to re-sensitise people to their surroundings, leading ultimately to a realignment with nature’ - Nature and Space: Aalto and Le Corbusier ‘You follow with an itinerar y and the perspectives develop with great variety, developing a play of light on the walls or making pools of shadow, to help us learn at the end of the day to appreciate what is available’ - Le Corbusier -
D I A G R A M M AT I C M O D E L S the first diagrammatic model expresses the idea of a jour ney constructed through a series of inside and outside spaces through which the senses could be set and reset. the second diagrammatic model contemplates the angling of spaces relative to the south and how this would affect the light in the space. these concepts carried forward into the for mulation of the final design which consists of a series of angled spaces along a journey interr upted by ‘membranes’, reconnecting the shopper to the outside and resetting the senses against the retail machine.
HYPOTHETICAL LANDSCAPE The garden is comprised of a series of loops. These c yclical r outes oppose the linear natur e of Prince’s Str eet. T he displaced retail in the g ardens eng ag es the edg e of the indeter minate loops and read in opposition to the linear route of Prince’s Street. T he loops for m a substrata of fast and slow in which the fashion is embedded.
buildings
contours
transport routes
shadow of castle rock
pathways
proposal location
1:2500 HYPOTHETICAL LANDSCAPE
1:1000 CONTOUR MODEL
|
SITING
landscape section line
1:1000 PLAN
|
SITING
In the following pag es I have detailed a section of the cyclical routes most affected by the Castle Rock shadow. T he roof acts as an indeter minate landscape, defining inter nal conditions, thus the design could be extrapolated along the routes marked out in the hypothetical landscape.
5 RESPONSE reactive and hybridized circuit
LANDSCAPE SECTION 1:500
|
EFFECT OF CASTLE ROCK SHADOW
P rinc e’s S t r eet
pr oposal
C a st le R o ck
Having stratified and segmented the circuit into fast and slow substrata, I positioned the fast to the outside and slow to the inside; thereby filtering and fragmenting the journey from the fast Prince’s Street to the slow gardens. Tectonically the roof exists as a landscape of beams, altered to control the internal conditions. The beams start to change geometry and density, occasionally filled in, or interrupted by alternate lighting devices. Thus, according to the temporal indexes of light and retail, the roof condition is defined by and defines the internal condition.
The building is a challenge to the mall typology. Instead of having the logic of a mall with fixed hours, it exists as part of a different system with ever changing flexibility built around time. Whilst the path remains open the adjacent spaces open and close according to an operational logic that is super specific to day and year, and that varies from shop to shop.
lunch 1230-1500 bar 1500-2000 (1500-1800)
constant slow shop
fast shop
0830-1830
1130-1930 (1230-1730)
diffuse condition caused by beams
condition caused by angle and beam roof
seasonal membrane view to castle seasonal arboreal cycle
slow seasonal shop
changing space
fast shop
0830-1630 (0930-1500)
0830-1900 (0930-1730)
most active 0830-1230 (0930-1200)
indirect seasonal light condition caused by light well
varying condition caused by spotlight effect
0830-1630 (0930-1500)
condition caused by slit window/ beam roof
breakfast cafe 0830-1100 (0930-1100) lunch 1100-1400 (1100-1300)
PLAN 1:250
ROOF PLAN 1:250
constant
changing
M U TAT I N G J O U R N E Y
|
S H A D O W PAT T E R N S & S U B S T R ATA O F F A S T A N D S L O W
morning
midday
evening
C H A N G I N G S PA C E 1 : 5 0 light canons | spotlight the changing room, frequently under-represented, marks the individuals reaction against collective consciousness it is a sensory and emotional moment of self-expression and reinvention
spotlights come on and off with movement of sun
S E A S O N A L S PA C E 1 : 5 0 rain/snow/leaf chambe r seasonality, which is intrinsically linked to fashion permeates the displays. arboreal colours, rain, snow filter into the space.
seasonal light well is a means of display in itself
FA S T S H O P direct light
MEMBRANE mutating jour ney seasonality
SLOW SHOP indirect light constant
EVENING BAR castle shadow directed light
LONGITUDINAL SECTION 1:200
|
SEQUENCE & SHADOW