RADICAL CONSERVATION a hypercathedral in Strasbourg by Simon Oudiette, tutored by Georges Heintz For the last three centuries, the heritage of the medieval town of Strasbourg and its former citadel have been heavily protected and regulated. At the very center of the city stands a cathedral — the tallest point of the whole western world until the end of the 18th century, it was also a market place, a school, and a hospital as well as the center point for all civil and political gatherings. Today, the decline of Christianity in France and the Alsace region have turned it into a mere touristic attraction, with rare religious events. The cultural shift toward mass tourism and the reshaping of religious practices put the building in a state of ambiguity. Under all the scaffoldings, it awaits a new rebirth. The proposal presents an alternative vision for an exit out of Strasbourg’s overstrict heritage protection. Blurring the frontier between utopia and dystopia, it is a manifesto for radical conservation through significant intervention.
possible
hyperconservation
social intangible
non-planification
continu
politique religion virus matrice creativité synesthesies appropriation architecture anarchie sacré palimpsest heuristique arche utopie totalitarisme technologie catharsis interface dystopie langage Argentoratum
unifying
resilience science poésie
democratie
heritage stratification collectif
deus est machina
Scaffoldings are often seen as eyesores on the existing fabric of heritage significance. A kind of temporary parasite imprisoning the beauty of monuments, only there to make them glitter again once removed. Although the intimate interactions that exist between the temporary scaffolding structure and the permanent existing building next to it have a certain appeal, the scaffolding itself has an intrinsic beauty and architectonic quality. Most people are oblivious to their qualities only because the even greater beauty of the building they are plugged to diminishes them. Yet one could not stand without the other. The structure appears simple, rudimentary even. But once it breaks free from the comparison, it can also be seen as minimalist, pure — a structure with endless potential. Multiplying and expanding this structure between different landmarks in the city creates a new level of reading
Grand Prize - Unbuilt Visions 2014 competition website : www.d3space.org/unbuiltvisions/ personal website : www.horoma.net
in the city adding on top of the existing street level. This new layering embodies a new political vision for the city, a new way of conceiving and designing the city. Even though the structure seems neutral, the contrast brings it closer from the existing, creating new perceptions of the urban fabric. Sometimes, only a bold move can best conserve heritage. These and the intimate relationship that the scaffoldings create with the existing makes it act as an efficient place maker or place actualizer. In the proposal, the former cathedral becomes a place for synesthetic interactions, a new way of practicing individual faith in a technological world. The scaffoldings become the manifestation of the will of the population to break free from space and reclaim new territories. The more the interactions within the structure via synesthetic phenomena, the wider and further the structure expands, liberating new territories for new uses. The inherent flexibility of the scaffolding allows for a heuristic architecture where changes occur as they’re needed by the users and not simply post facto. The formalization of this network is characterized from an emotional response to synesthetic phenomena, spreading in the structure, transformed into architecture. It is when the scaffolding responds to the population’s expectations, unifies people and starts to accommodate daily uses for the population and civil or political meetings, that it becomes something new. Only then is the scaffolding not seen anymore as a parasite to the cathedral, or a simple extension of the cathedral, but as the Cathedral itself. What I call the Hypercathedral.
self-constructing three-dimensional grid
synesthesias servers towers accumulate data from users citywide and expand, becoming an open dynamic witness of changes arising in the ark
new relationships emerge between the existing fabric and the ark
laboratory monitors activities in the structure in order to comprehend it synesthetic cells appear as the three-dimensional grid expands
synesthetic phenomenons take place in the former transept
the nave is the new entrance to the ark