”Architecture is merciless: it is what it is, it works or doesn’t, and you can clearly see the difference.”
Jacques Herzog
PROF. ELIEL AMERICO
MENTOR PROF. MARCIA URBANO
EXAMINING BOARD
PROF. JUAN GUILLÉN
EXAMINING BOARD
The present work aims to develop an ephemeral pavilion accessible to the visually impaired and the nearby population. The concept presented is based on an analysis of the blind’s adaptation process to space; and research on ephemeral architecture and its wide variety of possibilities. Based on this principle, the project provides the experience for the blind to know the architecture they do not reach and leads the user with the functional vision to an awareness of the architecture we see but often do not perceive. A significant portion of the population has some disability, either by birth or acquired; this is enough for a broad field of study, such as architecture, to contemplate all spheres of society more effectively. Architecture not only reveals the objective aspect of the city, the place, or the path, but it has the power to lead the user to reflection and critical thinking, including through a simple route.
Keywords: Architecture. Modular structure. Visually impaired. Accessibility. Sensory architecture. Multisensory design. Blind. Senses.
How we know and understand external reality has a great connection with the sense of vision; human perceptions and memories are constantly linked to a formed image, which is recorded in memories and the imaginary.
The experience in one place can be way different when one withdraws this estimated sense. Because of the human conditioning of perceiving first with the eyes: admiring in a distant and contemplative way, other bonds of perception of a place are often not created without the sense of vision.
An architect who lived these questions was the American Chris Downey. At 45 years old, after years of study and work with architecture, he was inserted in a context of sudden blindness due to cancer that promoted a twist in his “look” that led him to experience architecture in a new way.
In this way, human beings depend on what they see, as they base their understanding of something (an object, an event, or a place) on their visual perception. For example, imagine yourself needing to perform a simple and everyday task; such as washing dishes; cleaning the house; shopping, or going to the bank, but without seeing.
Thus, some questions arise for the exercise of architecture in a world where we do not see:
How to provide the experience of glimpsing a work, perceiving the full and empty, lights and shadows, and the magnitude present in architecture or in the great works already built?
Over the years, after the loss of vision, Downey became an architect consultant and advisor on accessibility projects.
The challenges of everyday life are enhanced by excluding the possibility of seeing, even partially. This is because there is a dependence on the sense of vision.
How to make architecture more noticeable for someone who does not see it?
chien andalou
"An architectural work is not experienced as a series of isolated retinal pictures, but in its fully integrated material, embodied and spiritual essence " Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin (1996)
Juhani Pallasmaa addresses the predilection of vision to the detriment of other senses in architecture, not only in conception but in the way of experiencing, doing, and teaching.
In the world’s history, the vision has taken the place of precedence before the other senses in everything related to aesthetics. As a result, buildings gradually lost plasticity and communication with the scale of the human body, becoming an object of visual appreciation and not experience.
Ephemeral Architecture has had ample space conquered in itinerant or temporary art exhibitions since its inception (with various purposes and needs, whether ornamental, exhibiting, or theatrical). Its itinerant, temporary, and easy-toexecute aspects allow the pavilion to be assembled and dismantled, reaching more places and impacting more people.
Another aspect, still, is the low cost of the facilities, by not remaining in place. Nevertheless, contrasting, there is a greater demand for technologies or forms that allow the speed and simplification of constructive methods for the pavilion.
So, Ephemeral Architecture shows a corresponding solution with the proposal of this project for its competence in spreading and propagating a concept. However, likewise, there is a challenge in making a structure that can be versatile in its use, that adapts to different terrains, and that aggregates several audiences continuously with the same goal.
This project aims to present an architecture beyond the tactile reach for the blind and raise awareness for the everyday user. So, exposing how to experience it, in addition to the content of the pavilion. From the architect’s experience, the project also aims to make the theme widespread, to lead to critical thinking about the impact our buildings can generate and what we can do to perceive the building better.
As specific objectives, the following were conceived:
Present the means of perception and daily experience of a visually impaired person;
Studying how the blind perceives a building and its practical consequences; Characterize the user in their experience in the building; Propose the integration of the blind in architecture.
The hands want to see, the eyes want to caress.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“
The two architects did not think building beauty; would be easy; they raised their amazement and left the astonishment unexplained. Creation is not an understanding; it is a new mystery. - When I died, one day I opened my eyes, and it was Brasilia.” Clarice Lispector. Chronicle: Brasilia (1964)
The experience of someone entering an architectural work such as the Cathedral of Brasilia is different from that of someone who sees it only from the outside while traveling the monumental Axis. Likewise, those who walk the streets of a city have different thoughts and perceptions about it than those who fly over the same place. Those who experience a building or city create more intense and complete memories. Thus, different from the user who created only the virtual memories of an observer who often did not have the notion of materiality, smell, and sensations.
Each human being has a relationship with his experiences, which become particular because they are unique and impossible to reproduce identically for others.
Poetically, Clarice Lispector reports on the first of her visits to Brasilia and brings the reader to her experience with the city. The writer shows her sensations and perceptions during her visits by describing her feelings and thoughts walking the city. The author’s narratives form images and scenes in the reader’s imagination, making the predominance of visual over all other senses evident.
Thus, the most considerable portion of the population (which has the fullness of their motor skills and senses) has a different perception of buildings, works, cities, churches, and monuments. That is, the common perception is entirely linked to the visual, leaving vague or nonexistent the focus on other aspects that can improve the experience of the place.
Therefore, it is necessary to turn to a complete architectural understanding in order to involve everyone’s experience and, in addition, enhance the experience already perceived.
The importance of this project is beyond the creation of an exhibition; it is in the change of thought about the way of doing architecture today. In addition to becoming more inclusive, architecture becomes more quality becoming more complex in its integration of aspects considered fundamental as flows, textures, and problem resolutions.
Still, the impact it can generate in society is much more remarkable because of the ephemeral effect, as it reaches a wide variety of niches and locations that use a diversity of buildings and designed spaces.
Among the most diverse causes and origins, the World Health Organization (WHO) brings, in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), published in February 2022, four levels of visual function, which are: normal vision; moderate visual impairment; severe visual impairment and blindness.
Some examples are people who can only perceive shapes, identify objects or shapes at short distances or even have only some light perception.
For nomenclature and categorization, the “moderate visual impairment” and “severe visual impairment” vision levels are considered subnormal. The definition is based on the scale of acuity and visual field; the ability to identify an object at a distance and the peripheral vision area of an eye, respectively.
Thus, the considered “blind” is not only the individual with total loss of vision but anyone with one or more of the various forms of visual impairment that lead to the impairment of the execution of activities and routine tasks.
The terms “blindness” and “visually impaired” can be relative to their definitions, as several documents, classifications, norms, and articles result from advice and legislation. For example,
the National Federation of the Blind in the United States encourages individual to consider themselves visually impaired: if he has poor vision, even using a corrective lens, to the point of needing any method, artifact, or artifice to perform some activity that someone with normal vision would do just using the eyes.
Then, blindness is defined by the difficulty of seeing at the level that makes the individual dependent, in some way, on other means to replace the visual perception of his surroundings.
Although the definition changes in its details, the central issue permeates the inability or difficulty in performing the everyday tasks that, with vision in normal conditions, would not be found.
Chris Downey is an American architect with more than 30 years of experience who, due to cancer, lost his sight in surgery in 2008. Shortly after he lost sight, the office where Chris worked declared bankruptcy. As a result, the architect needed to reinvent himself in a professional field where the aesthetic and observation factor would be considered “essential”.
Chris understood the buildings he had passed through several times in another way. Now he could no longer see them but came to understand in other ways. Over time, he began to exercise architecture with other resources; printers adapted to read the plants and, especially, began to express his project in another way because the creative process was in his mind and not in what he saw.
" if you take sight out of the equation, what makes for good architecture?"
Downey began by using a malleable toy from his son to show off his modifications to the plants and make the drawings he wanted, the way of reading a building’s plan also changed. As a result, he did not see the overall image while reading a project. Instead, he started to walk through the building with her fingertips, feeling and perceiving each space through touch.
This way of reading the plan allowed the architect to focus more on the details of the building. Realize how he would not notice before, just looking.
A few times later, he was hired as a consultant on a project for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Palo Alto, California, by the architect groups: Smith group; JJR eThe Design Partnership. So Chris, as a recent blind, could pass on the experience that veterans with affected vision would be going through.
In addition, as an architect, he could plan the best way to help them in every possible way by uniting the experience of architecture and life.
“It was sort of this— this excitement of, ‘I’m a kid again. I’m— I’m relearning so much of architecture.’ It wasn’t about what I’m missing in architecture, it’s what— was about what I had been missing in architecture.”
Over the years, Chris has consolidated his consultancy for architecture firms and has participated in large and important projects such as: Duke Eye Center; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Vision and Rehabilitation Tower and Sustainability Pavilion in Dubai.
In his projects, Chris seeks to cover the needs of the blind. Who feel the difference of textures and need helpers, such as braille texts and tactile floor, and those
who have partially affected vision, that is, who feel the difference of light, but still use the textures and tactile floor as support.
The architect also worked on some public projects in support of the California government, creating elements such as tactile maps, signage, and tactile floors. Furthermore, seeking harmony, so these elements do not become obstacles for other users with boundaries, such as a texture on a floor that hinders the wheelchair.
Chris’ life and work are examples of how architecture has a much more significant impact than visuals. Both architects and most users permeate the other aspects of architecture (besides the visual).
“I was fascinated— walking through buildings that I knew sighted. But I was experiencing them in a different way. I was hearing the architecture, I was feeling the space.”
Ephemeral architecture is based on the temporal act. Its central concept is an art, construction, or a passing work that depends on the author’s intention or on the consequences of its insertion in a given context.
Just as it is a passing work, it can, in the same way, be an itinerant work, which can be mountable and demountable and adapts to different environments.
Still, it is possible to assign an experimental character in this style because its brevity and cost allow exploring resources, forms, and objectives that escape the standard terms: form and function.
In this context, ephemeral architecture is based on concepts such as brevity, versatility, originality, low cost, economy, cheap materials, and creativity.
The “concept” is also very present in ephemeral architecture because, being a temporary installation, it often aims to express a thought and an idea by itself.
The differentiated architecture gave its name to the amount of iron and glass used throughout the structure. The goal of the Crystal Palace was to receive the first Great Exhibition, where thousands of objects of technological and manufacturing nature were displayed as printers, jewelry, and vehicles (carriages).
The pavilion had large internal spans with spaces ideal for exhibitions such as fairs.
The structure was made of iron pillars with supported trusses. As a result, it reduced costs, construction time, and the need for artificial lighting.
After being moved, unfortunately, in 1936, the pavilion was destroyed by a fire but followed as an example of using glass as a fence curtain, optimizing natural light.
Another example of ephemeral architecture is the Eiffel Tower, designed by engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, winner of a contest for an exhibition in 1889, celebrating the 100 years of the French revolution.
It took two years to build, and the tower should have been dismantled a few years after the “Exposition Universelle” event.
French artists at the time united and positioned themselves against the construction and permanence of the tower in Paris, claiming that it was unlike the city’s beauty for being very tall and built mainly in iron and steel.
However, the tower was able to “prove its worth” by scientific/military argument by receiving an antenna at its top for radio transmission and not being demolished.
Today, ephemeral architecture has become very common as a coparticipant in many seasonal events. Such as parades, shows, exhibitions, museums, pavilions, fairs, and stands.
Because there is no need to remain on-site and in time, the facilities have much greater flexibility and freedom in form and, especially, construction resources than a work or a typical project.
In particular, the pavilions have an experimental character that allows, as necessary, the flexibility and freedom of creation in ephemeral architecture and extensive use for both the author and the user.
This freedom makes interaction of the user with the environment immensely necessary when it comes to the inclusion not only of the visually impaired but of the entire audience with some incapacitation, be it sensory/ physical or mental.
The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) initially made the 2016 Serpentine pavilion based on a single wall that was gradually deconstructed and became a three-dimensional space.
A conventional brick wall inspires the wall. However, to have the desired translucent and organic effect, the group opted for hollow blocks made of fiberglass that, when viewed in the East-West direction, become opaque and, when viewed in the NorthSouth direction, become transparent.
The floor and furniture were built in wood, ensuring a linear texture and allowing the user to perceive the building by touch.
All the facades are due to the modulation of the fiberglass blocks that allow the organic form and open space for the pavilion’s interior in its fluid and continuous flow.
The work has simple features that are easy to assimilate for the user who, even without seeing or with partial vision, can understand its constructive form that comes out of head straight line and winds through the horizontal and vertical axes.
In this project of approximately 350m², the Japanese architect seeks to merge architecture with nature around him. It was nicknamed soon after its inauguration as cloud, precisely for its lightness and impression of the rarefied structure.
Its shape defines its uses and spaces.
For example, the same structure that makes a barrier also makes a bench, a passage, or delimits a space.
It was mainly made of a modular steel mesh that varies in density and strength but remains entirely geometric. The uses are delimited by the structure that interacts as wall, access, roof, and pavement.
In the pavilion, it is possible to realize that, although visually permeable, the uses and spaces are well-defined and can be flexible.
Thus, within the linear flow internal to the structure, there is space for exhibitions with grandstands and larger openings. In its interior, there is space for permanence with tables for a cafe, and the whole project becomes a place for user interaction. The project shows special care for children through their attraction to the resemblance to a playground toy.
The project’s materiality is remarkable for being extremely subtle, with few fills and appreciation of emptiness.
Although steel is an element that can give weight to the work, the lack of closures leaves it permeable. In addition, the modular form facilitates the understanding of the element as a whole, so it is not necessary to reach the top to understand how it is assembled or go around the perimeter to understand what materials were used.
Based on the tensile structure of Frei Otto, a German architect, the fence composed of tensile fabrics allows the design lightness, practicality in assembly, and adaptability of shapes.
Several pavilions use the textile structure as an architectural solution for fences and facades for its flexibility of forms and easy maneuverability. Another important factor in textile structures is the ease of transport, which makes the pavilion concept more suitable and economically viable to be built in several places.
Based on the ephemeral architecture and its transitory character, the project will be a pavilion so that it can be assembled and dismantled in different cities and its content and idea can be disseminated and reach a more significant number of people.
The accessibility awareness in people’s minds is more consequential than the accessibility of a building. A pavilion that changes some thoughts can be a longterm differential in a society, so the impact on society is potentiated and has a much greater reach because it goes through more places and influences more people.
The consequence of this awareness will be the effect on building projects, streets’ paths, and all over the city. Furthermore, this change will be in consciousness and not imposed by law.
Route: Demarcated and Sensory Layout: User Friendly Smoothed unevenness and ramps
“The knot, Perplexed at its simple complex elegance, tying two loose ends,
The weaves and tensions that holds together, unifying bonds yet as far as they can be.
A knot is all around, those who knot and those who not. I was not.
I didn’t know how to knot.
Strings all around tangle but rarely knot, the simple geometry without angles nor shape, the beauty when a knot takes place, a consistent loop they make nothing spectacular for a circus but interest took pace.
trial and error, the two ends are brought closer and closer, they pass and meet, the excitement and anticipation of the feat, to what will the knot take place; fascinating, dream or visualise but know not the form this knot takes."
The pavilion proposes a path through which the user has the experience of the perception of architecture about blindness. Through this path, the individual goes through the difficulty of vision, where light is gradually less present.
Linearity represents this process, in its extension, forms a knot, as well as the sensations’ mixture and feelings generated in this course.
Along the way, models with braille panels are exhibited, telling the story of Brasilia’s modern architecture.
The pavilion is not only a project for the blind or those who see. Intentional and specific experiences are provided for each audience.
Benches and plazas at the central nodes of the axes of the pavilion
In support of the works exhibited inside the pavilion, panels are arranged with drawings, schemes, diagrams, and sketches in relief, along with braille texts for the exhibition.
The panels are structured by the porticos and are next to the textile structure, with the drawings and texts understood up to 6 feet high so that it does not hinder the reading and makes it inaccessible. In addition, the designs are printed in different textures for better tactile perception.
The benches in the plazas are mounted with OSB wood, even material used in the boards for the floor. This material makes the space more cozy and comfortable and economically more favorable for modulation.
The tactile floor marking also permeates the external areas, connecting the external spaces to the internal ones through the nodes formed at each intersection.
The Italian Maria Montessori created the method of teaching and developing the child and adolescent by practice, including part of cognitive, emotional, and social aspects. It emphasizes autonomy and freedom of the individual and uses didactic materials that stimulate the spontaneous work of the intellect.
There is a wide variety, such as bars, mobile alphabets, sandpaper letters, geometric solids, smell tubes, tact plates, and farm boxes, among the materials for developing sensory education through the Montessori Method.
Initially, this method was created to help children with disabilities (physical and metals). However, today there are more than 25,000 Montessori schools worldwide, and this pedagogy has been successfully disseminated in all contexts.
In the pavilion are used panels with holes and shapes with different textures for this stimulation of the visually impaired child or not, creating a playful and multisensory space that all children of all ages can use.
Accessible bathroom module dividing the hydraulic wall with the café, which has 8m².
Two porticos shelter both spaces, and the textile structure covers part of the facades.
The materiality of the bathroom allows a quick and independent constructive method.
The shoes can be concrete or steel, depending on the terrain, and the latter is only recommended if the land that will receive the pavilion does not allow digging.
In both cases, measurements shall be made with the aid of lines according to the modulation of the pavilion, which shall follow the following pattern:
Distances: 5m X 2,85m
The beams and rafters are placed in a grid shape, in the same arrangement used in decking. Rafters spaced at 60cm
OSB wooden boards are supported and screwed into the metal rods that are also fastened similarly.
The mounting of the plates is done after the assembly of the entire structure.
The porticoes are assembled with three pieces of MLC joined by dowels (turned wooden pins).
The dimensions were defined based on the largest span among the frames.
The inclination of the upper beam assists in water flow and prevents its accumulation.
The rods perform both a support for the models’ base and exposed materials as an anchorage for the railing plates. They are also embedded in the lateral notches.
Tension cables and hooks at the ends of the fabric for traction
The fiberglass membrane is adaptable to shape, lightweight, and resistant to traction. The structure is placed above the gantries being pulled and fixed at the pillars’ bases with cables.
Fixation is through tension hooks, eyelets, and steel cables.
Stiffened steel profiles with double U section. Used to support the modular structure, enabling precast fittings and receiving the wooden structures.
Wood sheets OSB 3 (Oriented Strand Board). Plates with good mechanical and moisture resistance are ideal to be used as a floor, railing, and base to support the exposed models, panels, and materials.
Beams and pillars of MLC (Glued Laminated Wood) allow free spans of up to 10m and good structural strength. Pinus wood blades, glued with their fibers always arranged in parallel.
Fiberglass membrane coated with PTFE. A versatile textile structure allows the coating of the pavilion with a material resistant to water and adverse weather conditions. Also, the material allows heat exchange, assisting in thermal comfort inside the pavilion.
The pavilion is modular and can be assembled in several different ways and places.
In order to be arranged in the manner proposed, the following quantities of each modular part shall be required:
Beam 5m Beam 2,70m Rafter 2,70m
Shoes
Module Porticoe
Porticoe
Porticoe
Porticoe
Porticoe
Support Rods
Rods
Support plate 0,60
Railing plate
plate
In order to bring the monumental scale of modern architecture to the fingertips, the models are arranged along the route. They must tell a story, which can be divided into sectors or follow a logical order.
To make the Neo Pavilion, the prominent landmarks for which the resident of Brasilia passes daily were chosen. However, they often do not know the history behind that monument or as it was given its conception.
Models should be made of material that is not aggressive to the touch, but resistant to weather, exposure, and possible transport. Also, scales should be observed in each work, which often asks for more than one representation, showing more than one stage of conception or more forms and peculiarities of each work.
Aluminum (well worked and well finished, leaving no tips or edges)
In the first block are exhibited the works inaugurated between 1958 and 1960.
Works that had and still have great importance for economic, and religious history.
Starting with Palácio da Alvorada, Igrejinha, Palácio the National Congress were inaugurated between
inaugurated along with Brasilia for the city’s political, social, Palácio do Planalto, STF, and 1958 and 1960.
Then some of the most striking works in the history of architecture of Brasilia, such as the TV Tower, the Cathedral, the Nilson Nelson Gymnasium, the JK Memorial, and the Republic Museum. They were inaugurated between 1968 (TV Tower) and 2008, like the Museum of Republic.
Also, works and icons are arranged that are fragments of more extensive works, such as The Candangos and the statue of the JK Memorial, to improve perception about the places in which they are implanted. Still, the JK bridge was represented on more than one scale, allowing a more general perception and another with more details.
In the continuation, some buildings and various places, parts of the daily life of Brasilia, such as the Central Bank building, the airport, and the ICC, which has the FAU highlighted to exemplify the interior of the building and expose internal spaces.
Brasília has a series of works related to the military: Teatro Pedro Calmon; the Queen of Peace Cathedral; the Oratory of the Soldier, and the Acoustic Shell of the Army Headquarters, which refers to the sword of Duque de Caxias. All these show the marked and modernist trait by the characteristic horizontality.
Examples of modernist architecture and other pavilions, such as the 2003 Serpentine, the MAC, the Tiradentes Palace, and the Canoas House, are placed for the last stretch. Finally, the pavilion opens, and the user leaves with other perceptions about the world around them.
60 minutes CBSNews, “Architect goes blind, says he’s actually gotten better at his job”. https://www.cbsnews. com/news/blind-architect-chris-downey-60-minutes-2022-06-19/
August 15, 2022
BOURNE R, STEINMETZ J, FLAXMAN S, et al., Trends in prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment over 30 years: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet Glob Health. 2020.
COSTA, A. B.; PICHARILLO, A. D. M.; PAULINO, V. C. O processo histórico de inserção social da pessoa cega: da Antiguidade à Idade Média, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, 2018.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design. https://www.ada.gov/ regs2010/2010ADAStandards/2010ADAstandards.htm
EYE INSTITUTE, “Blindness, Statistics and Data [NEI].” https://www.nei.nih.gov/eyedata/blind
August 10, 2022
FRANCO, J. R.; DIAS, T. R. S. A pessoa cega no processo histórico: um breve percurso. Revista Benjamin Constant, Nº 30. IBCENTRO/MEC, Rio de Janeiro, 2005.
History & Regulations Legislative History of the American State-Federal Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Program. https://www.in.gov/fssa/ddrs/files/HistoryandRegulations-82017.pdf
August 08, 2022
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND, Blindness Statistics. https://nfb.org/resources/blindness-statistics
July 20, 2022
OTTAIANO, J. A. A. et al. As Condições de Saúde Ocular no Brasil. Conselho Brasileiro de Oftalmologia. Edição 1 – 2019.
OMVIG, JAMES. “History of Blindness: Summary of the History of the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind.” American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. https://www.actionfund.org/historyblindness June 24, 2022
THE INTERNATIONAL AGENCY FOR THE PREVENTION OF BLINDNESS, Vision Atlas, Magnitude and Projections Global Estimates of Vision Loss. https://www.iapb.org/learn/vision-atlas/magnitude-and-projections/ global/ June 16, 2022
THE LANCET GLOBAL HEALTH, Trends in prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment over 30 years: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/ article/PIIS2214-109X(20)30425-3/fulltext#section-7c530872-6235-4433-899c-b3f276970189 July 20, 2022
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, World report on vision. 2019
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision. https://icd.who.int/en July 18, 2022
