James Ho – Afdeling 2.
Steering environments
Friday 14 June 2013
Compendium A multiplicity of typologies: as means of displacement through two non-connected territories of the Berlin Wall.
My project aims to control the flow of displacement through architectural elements, across two nonconnected territories within a range of scales; urban, building and component. I will do this through the manifestation of architectural typologies that specifically provide either a passive or active obstruction to; sound, light, water flow, people etc. An example of these typologies could be Denys Lasdun´s National Theatre, as it expresses how the containment of sound and light flow is a product of the architecture of the construct. My intentions are to purify the function of my proposal through a selective conglomeration of architectural typologies to best respond to multiple happenings and co-inhabitations within the same construct. By eliminating the complex mechanical/digital control element that would normally be incorporated to a polyprogrammatic building. I intend to use the architectural construct to act as the mediator to the varying dynamics of having multiple environments in the same domain. A key study will be to select a range of buildings with specific functions and dissect the architectural core that allows such functions to be carried out, for example the ability of a medieval castle to funnel a regiment of soldiers in attack to reduce their impact on the fort. The structural logic of a construct not only describes the physical function of a building and how the loads are transferred to the ground but also dominates the aesthetic image that is represented internally and externally. Through this means I intend to play with the structural logic that provides the fundamental arrangement that can potentially be arranged to respond to the buildings expression, disregarding its actual physical composition. As a means to control displacement I intend on creating a component through architectural concepts that regulates the flow of matter and non-matter based elements both passively and actively. The idea is that it will be able to adapt specifically and accurately to a range of time-based changes that might occur in a year, season, a month, twenty-four hours and even hourly. An architectural component that will replace the need to add a mechanical element that acts on feedback received by an input either human or digital, that calculates the corrective action needed to maintain the system in equilibrium. I wish to in corporate the use of materiality to define use, function, enhance the observation of difference and by this, enhance the juxtaposition of material traits. Initial studies in Copenhagen suggested that a pattern or a clear distinction of the same material can register a threshold that is not manifested physically as an obstruction but is made evident through the same material in a pattern; a characteristic arrangement or through contrasting materials. Following the investigations of Berlin I found similarities of these thresholds and patterns. I choose to look a the ability of the Berlin wall to separate space which in actual fact I later discovered, it did the exact opposite in some instances. I choose to look at this in further detail due of its defined structure and pure functional intention of segregation. At a larger urban scale the wall divided the country, at a building scale the centre of the city was divided into five zones, two zones either side of the wall; extreme side (furthest away from the wall), the uninhabited area (the area closest to the wall) and finally at a component scale of the wall (composed of the death strip, wall and death strip). As I dug deeper I discovered that the intention of the Berlin Wall was to set forth a net of separation nodes that resulted in the progressive atrophy of the neighbouring area due to the nature of the wall. When in actual fact the wall became the mediator for displacement between two territories set apart.
James Ho – Afdeling 2.
Steering environments
I wish to formulate this eloquent form of contradiction to manifest it physically in the experience of my proposal by moulding the nature of the program, modifying the logic and arrangement of the architectural typologies and finally to incorporate the different variations of over coming an obstacle such as the wall. Considering the defensive nature of the typologies and the dividing nature of the wall I intend to incorporate two programs with conflicting use, function and ideology to co-exist and in the same deceiving manner as the wall links them [nodes] at specific instances to contradict this separation. The Berlin Wall will play a large role in my project although it is expressed subtlety by making it self evident through connotations of its nature architecturally. The wall may act as an obstruction to overcome, a metaphorical and physical divider and a centraliser (nodes along the wall; crossing points, watch towers etc). On the one hand quite simply I intend to use the line of the wall as a back bone to adhere the typologies to define the general layout of my proposal to respectfully pay homage to the existence of it and then to allow the user to constantly weave in and out of the metaphorical boundary of the wall, celebrating the fall of two conflicting sides as a now unified space. On the other hand the walls dividing nature allows the hierarchy of the bath’s ritual process to be manifested physically and geographically by its placement relative to the wall. Allowing the metaphorical division of the bather’s ritual, introitus (entrance), apoditarium (changing room), tepidarium (steam room), frigidarium (cold bath), caldarium (hot bath), apoditarium (changing room) and egressus (exit). Were the hot and cold bath can be located at either side of the wall in tribute to the wall but also due to the opposing natures of the hot and cold bath, which allow the library to span across the voids creating a interlocking system of two distinct programs knitted by a neutral space. The concept of the Bath & Library proposal is an architectural interpretation of the paradoxical forces of the Berlin Wall, reinterpreted in a respectfully yet playful manner.
James Ho – Afdeling 2.
Steering environments
This can be achieved through materiality but most importantly thought the arrangement of such materials and their scale. Such as areas that are activated by the flow of circulation and its multi-functionality by pattern and material arrangement, demonstrated in public spaces.