a puzzle place
1
2
contents
Architectural Design: Any Place Ila Colley s1510700
part 1: ROLES what is a library? poison cabinet reading the room / a room for reading religion vs romance routing the room role-playing character profile brief: a library for puzzles
................................................................................. 6 ................................................................................. 9 ............................................................................... 10 ............................................................................... 17 ............................................................................... 21 ............................................................................... 25 ............................................................................... 26 ............................................................................... 28
part 2: RULES Louis Kahn’s Exeter library: rules Rome: rhythm Rome: ruins a rising city burrowing film Piazza di san Cosimato backstage hierarchy: puzzle in a place
............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ...............................................................................
34 38 40 42 44 48 56 59
part 3: ROUTES slicing the site guiding on site burrowing a building plans: take one structure and pattern gateway / mast reliquary revisited through the cave sharing steps extending an invitation a workshop re-routing start space a descent coded layers representation and inhabitation an active exchange
............................................................................... 65 ............................................................................... 66 ............................................................................... 68 ............................................................................... 72 ............................................................................... 76 ............................................................................... 78 ............................................................................... 81 ............................................................................... 82 ............................................................................... 85 ............................................................................... 88 ............................................................................... 91 ............................................................................... 92 ......................................................................... 94-95 ............................................................................... 96 ............................................................................. 102 ............................................................................. 105 ............................................................................. 106
part 4: [RE]SOLVED route: interpreter / solver route: explorer / maker section: activity formal drawings final thoughts
............................................................................. ............................................................................. ............................................................................. ............................................................................. .............................................................................
113 121 126 132 146
3
4
part 1: ROLES
5
what is a library? falling This first model sets out to explore this purely romantic view of what a library means to me. In its verticality it aimed to recreate an oneiric sense of burrowing into a new world [in a book] or emerging from a closed space into new understanding. Fragmented layers allow a space / void to tease us into further discovery as we descend.
Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves. - Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
6
7
Space and memory: stairs. Bachelard touches on the importance of stairs as ordering and dynamic memory devices. The climbing / descending movement seems to have great emotion in our unconscious, and can act as links between spaces, imagined or remembered. In the real world, the motion of using a staircase differs distinctly to the commonly known forget-effect of passing through a doorway; instead of immediately presenting a new question, a journey of climbing / descending can act as a series of mental platforms that lead from confusion to conclusion.
Verticality is ensured by the polarity of cellar and attic, the marks of which are so deep that, in a way they open up two very different perspectives for a phenomenology of the imagination‌ Up near the roof all our thoughts are clear. - Bachlelard, The Poetics of Space
8
climbing
9
poison cabinet misdirection This week our prompt was a podcast from 99percentinvisible on the Giftschrank (literally ‘poison cabinet’) which discussed different spaces or modes of censorship in which the original work is not destroyed but hidden, restricted or encased. One of the final examples of restricting the effect of deemed dangerous texts in the modern age discussed a new critical edition of Mein Kampf that had been released since the recent expiry of its copyright and subsequent release into the public domain. This edition seeks to mute Hitler’s ideology through masses of footnotes disproving or arguing with his points. I thought this specific example was fascinating, enveloping language within language, suffocating it. A sort of literary filibustering. My initial ideas about a poison cabinet for last week’s model was informed by this specific example. Responding also to Julia’s ideas about accessibility and visual permeability through her welded metal frame, I thought about the questionable role of censorship, back to the podcast’s reference to Mein Kampf’s censorship during denazification. Leaders of european countries were wary of being compared to Nazi’s in their heavy censorship of opposing material. Linking Julia’s ideas with my impression of the podcast, I decided to work with ‘transparency’, or seemingly so. Using the language of the lino prints already displayed in the frame, I created a new narrative that flows over the lino cuts, almost mirroring them but not quite, then evolving into a new, chaotic thing with no relation to the original. This seeks to represent the worlds depicted in Julia’s lino cuts (books on a shelf?) being manipulated into something ultimately removed from the original intention, yet so disconcertingly similar at first glance it provides no ground for argument.
10
11
12
prints by J. Brookfield
13
14
15
During the third week I looked back to vertical movement but with further emphasis on the role of the platform to organise or “shelve� narratial points. I begin to wonder what fascinates us about being lost? When do we accept or ignore and marvel? Is surrender necessary in a space of learning? Do we offer ourselves to formation? Are we led or do we still make choices down the rabbit hole?
16
reading the room / room for reading
17
What does the process of ‘reading’ look like? Is it chaos? Threads of logic on a sprawling map? In other words, chaos is the complicated relationship of simple structures. Starting to contextualise my rooms, I think about how they relate spatially and the symptoms of relationship from inside the room.
I felt a kind of vertigo, as if I were merely plunging from one world to another, and in each I arrived shortly after the end of the world had taken place. - Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
18
19
1:250
20
The Pantheon interior by Giovanni Battista Piranesi
religion vs romance texture platform oculus centrality focus crossing sacred symbol buried upwards reredos at Oxford Oratory
Stupa in Sri Lanka
21
Reader by moonlight by Whistler
Reliquary of Saint Oswald
This drum shaped model was led by the notion of solitary reflection in a community space. I wanted to consider how a library deals with the focus of the individual balanced against its philosophy of sharing. Without intent, the materials and forms I used began to suggest the ritualism of religious spaces. Concentric ring pathways suggested spiritual circumambulance around a sacred centre. This lapping movement seemed to encourage a relation to others, even if unspoken, as it constantly refers to a common centre. Thin twigs at the central well indicated something pagan or cosmological. I began to wonder whether the well was symbolic or if it represented passage to the centre of a wider network. I started to align this with with the romantic ideas of descent I had explored in the first week.
22
Seemingly framing the ring of fragile twigs, I began to nickname this concept the reliquary.
23
24
routing a room Continuing the idea of the reliquary as a focus point of a more chaotic network, I begin to develop passageway ‘arm’ elements in plan. In relation to the street, this provides an intermediate journey that distances heart from skin. Perhaps the arms represent the forward movement of finding and collecting, then the reliquary is a space of comprehension. Beginning to consider Rome’s historic topology, we experimented placing forms into Nolli’s renaissance plan of public realm.
25
role-playing
Pushing gateway away from the reliquary, I consider an entrance condition that stitches journey of the street to journey of the library. Playing with the romantic ideas of descent, I tailored this model to an inquisitive passer-by who finds an open doorway, whose interior seems to fall away from the convention of the building it is set into. The route is defined by pattern and pockets, trying to prove itself as considered structure, amplifying curiosity as to why and by who? Suggesting uncertain passage, it presents itself as a challenge. It forms the user into an intruder who, without a greater understanding of the journey ahead, must create its narrative themself.
26
27
A
B
character profile interpreter Interpreters are sensitive to and persuaded by environmental indicators. These users grasp the meaning of the world as a piece of design: arch means new chapter, invitation, perspective change. Line means procession, summoning or interdependence of space. These roleplayers are at home in the reliquary, where the spiritual agenda is clear and space mimics other religious architectures.
28
explorer Contrary to the obedience of interpreters, explorers are more skeptical of rhetoric. They seek their own stories in the morphology of the street. Though they respond to the same indicators, explorers are more likely to question them or be attracted to the incongruent ones. These role-players find themselves at the secret doorway, ready to navigate whatever labrinth the underworld presents.
A
B
A map of the library: Using models and drawings to form spatial relationships and map the beginnings of a narrative between them. Collating my work in this free pin-up helped to establish latent trends. As my original rough mid-term exhibition I’d printed the drawings chronologically in a grid. Coming back from Rome I was able to approach that display as a puzzle to myself, cutting up and rearranging the pieces to form the library that had existed in my mind. After I took this image, I came back to find somebody had drawn a string down the central axis, allowing me the ‘solution’ moment where I could work with something coherent. From perspectives and diagrams I could begin to think in section and contextualise each ‘moment’ I’d considered so far.
29
brief: a library for puzzles Before Rome we were encouraged to decide what our library would house and let this guide our experiments. I was torn between focusing on the serenity of the reliquary (perhaps a quiet ‘safekeeping’ library like a seed bank) or the playfulness of the passageways (a games library full of mazes?). But, looking back to some of the initial diagrams I’d drawn when I’d been wondering what a library was between chaos and logic, I thought of puzzles. A puzzle is an object that draws both a sense of the sacred, and of fun. Governed by careful sets of rules, like the reliquary, when being solved the puzzle can seem to be full of mess and mystery before the clarity of solution. Linking both the reliquary and the doorway as points on this journey, I began sketching ideas about what kind of motions and forms could represent both the analytical and the experimental processes it can take to solve a puzzle.
30
31
32
part 2: ROLES RULES
33
images.adsttc.com archello.com aplust.net
Louis Kahn’s Exeter library: rules
For my pecha kucha presentation I looked at Louis Kahn’s Exeter Library. Like in most of Kahn’s work there is a sense that the building is trying to humble the user. It has been said that Kahn saw every typology of building he designed as a temple. The library here is a temple for books. And, in true tradition of the ancients, this greater spirituality is achieved through forms closest to Plato’s ideals. Extending the consideration of rules I had for the reliquary, Kahn’s library exemplifies distinct parameters for circulation and association through architectural language. First, the overall cube form establishes the building as a ‘solved’ whole. Next, a core expresses the mechanic of this solution: a keystone element, like in the puzzle opposite. Yet for Kahn’s library it is the void itself that holds the building together, strengthening the inter-relation of the levels and the ground plaza. Then comes pattern: giant cut out circles allow views into the atrium on each level. This pattern does not serve the user or address differently functioning spaces, it simply adheres to a rule. In this, the authority of a higher knowledge is expressed through a purity we do not yet understand, but might begin to, if we begin to read. Finally, zoned ‘doughnuts’ express a journey as a user searches, finds, reads, realises. Later on, I use Kahn’s ideas of pattern and zoning to establish similar conditions in the puzzle journey.
34
35
a city
36
37
Rome: rhythm What meant most to me about Rome? I think is was the feeling of navigating spaces so carefully considered with regard to human experience. The fabric of Rome is one of collage, where the streets have been written and rewritten by regimes with diverse regard to histories. Each collage attempt, whether it be authorative or individualised
38
tells a story that hasn’t been abbreviated into one. Everything refers to a human scale. Even when the scale is immense, the purpose of this feel so deliberately comparative to human that we can rationalise the architecture. Though surrounded by emblems of doctrine, many of Rome’s other motifs are treated with the same sense of value and beauty. The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning roads, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indetations, scrolls. - Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
39
Rome: ruins
40
Drawing public spaces in Rome unavoidably involves the intersection of diverse histories. Space drawing forced me to think about distance and depth in these contexts. One of the things I found fascinating was the sunken level of ruins. This seems obvious practically but thinking in terms of convention of preservation and display, things of recognised importance are usually put on a plinth, in a case, away from anything harmful. Because of the unsuitability of this treatment for architecture, the ruins of Rome have this ‘stumble upon’ quality that imbues a feeling of otherworldly history. But more importantly there is a certain a personal relation due to a the (deceptive) lack of physical intervention/didacticism. The narrative is there to explore and determine.
41
P. di san Cosimato Nolli’s map of Rome from nolli.uoregon.edu
Trajan Forum below city level
ScanLab project: ancient temple under modern Rome
Cloaca maxima (sewers) from bsr.ac.uk
42
later sketch: drains
a rising city Our historic guide to Rome, UoE’s Ian Campbell, described these sunken ruins as “scars” in the city fabric that Rome isn’t sure whether to disturb. What modern Rome can establish itself with its ground to build on being constantly interrupted? So far Rome has managed to build around these relic pits, with this rising movment emphasising what’s being left behind. I liked this question of rising Rome, after all Rome has always been a city coping with or capitalising on layers. The flooding of the Tiber informed an architecture of levels, on which the ground floor dwellers, more modestly adorned on the facade, bear the brunt of the flood but the first floor treatments are most lavish, paying for best accessibility without risk. A huge amount of the great Roman aquaducts are hidden; in Rome some of the most impressive ancient infrastructure is constitutes an impressive underground realm. With both ancient temple and waterway having a buried quality, I began to think about relating my reliquary and passageway to the topographical rules of site. Conceptually, the question of rising was one of what it means to grow as opposed to stripping back. The puzzle process would be the part of Rome’s story where we excavate, bring out the bones.
43
burrowing
into Rome’s palimpsest 44
The puzzle of place must have rules. Place is built according to rules, inhabited according to rules. To understand place we need to first decipher those rules. But what if those rules are interpreted differently to each maker and player of the puzzle? Can it be solved? Or do we just make the puzzle more complex by establishing our own rules on a palimpsest of others?
45
making a path
in
46
or following one
motion
47
48
ad zz Pia
iS
an
ato
sim Co
49
50
My first impression of Piazza di san Cosimato was the diverse spatial experiences on and around the square. These quick sketches demonstrate the impression I had of the slope, shape of landscaping and ‘pinching’ feeling as you move from the open square to the ministreets it creates around the green space. These do serve to push you closer to other portals: the intimate arch of the church might seem impersonal from afar as it would be without these level changes.
51
How is place populated? Symptoms of life include the objects found and the marks left. With the existing market on site, the library philosophy of exchange already organises space. The architecture of this exchange is flexibility: various ways to inhabit. And with these ideas is the idea of objects as moving, passing through, changing hands. There is a great sense of space shared as physical ownership is vague, dynamic. The piazza is marked with evidence of users treating the permanent fabric in a versatile way too.
52
53
activity
The market piazza follows a fairly uniform scale based on the counter portal. Lined with these window / doorway modules, my passageway element would slot in discreetly. With no grand architecture on site, these portals create a feeling of intimacy and equality in the community of the piazza. Without the watchful gaze of history, as in other parts of Rome, there is a greater sense of play. The space is transformed into a football pitch, a skate park, an outdoor cinema, forming a strong modern civic identity.
54
movement later plan interacting with circulation of the piazza
When the market isn’t active, the open space is drawn over by children, youths, mostly circulation hugs to shelter of the buildings and trees. The central playground is fenced off from the square, despite being level on the west. While the gateway attracts people at this changing point, it feels like there’s an effort to restrict play to one area despite the fact users are already breaking out of this. Despite having vehicle access on the perimeter, the pedestrian seems to hold the power. When we first visited a crowd had gathered in the south end of the square, holding flowers and talking in groups. The road itself was almost completely blocked off. Word was that a notable local psychologist had died. A slightly berwildering explanation but at the time I was impressed by the clear devotion and deep connections of the community.
55
backstage
Playing the explorer, I was most attracted to the road behind the permanent stalls. I liked the idea of it as the backstage of the market-theatre. There are portals on this side too, but they are for the loading of goods. This whole street seemed to be made of back doors, with glimpses through to the main square as if looking out from the wings. It started me thinking about what the role of the explorer becomes inside the building. Are they the merchant? Or the vendor? Or, perhaps, they are the artisan of the puzzles.
56
57
Antonello da Messina St Jerome in his Study c. 1475
58
Anne Tyng and her Tyng Toy https://architoys.blogspot.co.uk Series of wooden puzzles
https:/smallpuzzlecollectionblogspot.co.uk
hierarchy: puzzle in a place As Kahn mimics with his inner timber structure in the brick and concrete Exeter Library, the origins of the library were distinct objects inside buildings: a manuscript cabinet, then monastic carrels, and as in Messina’s render, a whole study elevated on a wooden platform inside a church. Having opted for a library of small wooden puzzles, I began thinking about how my library could reflect both this history of temporary structures inside a primary space and the delicate mechanical feel of the puzzle. Perhaps some of the structures could be buildable, adaptable, or simply relate to the user in that they suggest such an autonomy and human relation.
59
Such secondary structures could interact with users the way they interact with the puzzles as they go, being both guided by parameters while having a number of choices to make within them. I like the idea of relation to the form of the puzzles, seeming to stack or cut through, dismantle, fit together. Maybe they are platform elements that encourage different types of movement between planes, like Matter Design’s Play Structure, or perhaps they form pockets or troves for finding smaller puzzles within. Thinking about the temporary structures that are already used on site, there could be some relation to the stalls of the piazza or the objects used there. The Jellyfish Theatre was a fun project exploring repurposed materials; it could be interesting to see how existing puzzles of place could physically contribute to the puzzle place.
60
Left: Five Fields Play Structure - Matter Design Right: Final Wooden House - Sou Fujimoto Bottom: The Jellyfish Theatre - Koebberling & Kaltwasser images from Dezeen, ArchDaily, Inhabitat
61
62
part 3: ROLES RULES ROUTES
63
slicing the site
64
1:1500
65
sketch plans at 1:1000
guiding on site The process of making a site model out of plasticine allowed me to first model the existing site, then experiment with it, slicing and changing levels. A key experiment was extending the edge of the raised landscape, slicing the site into a platform and ramp system. While there would still be a feeling of vast open space full of light and sound, this also introduces a new edge to gather to or flow around. The level change opens up a gap along which there could be glazing to serve subterranean spaces, and allowing them to maintain a relationship to the piazza. On this new strip of site, I test out placement and approach of the reliquary pavilion, its link / framing role to a more open play space and a hierarchy of underground zones.
66
above: own model below: Louis Kahn’s Yale Art Gallery from http://britishart.yale.edu
What are the rules of the site? Vast open space. Mini streets. A green centrepiece. Patterns of portals. Patterns of paving and drains. Last but not least. The drains that cut across the main piazza link back to the beginnings of Rome’s infrastructure. Using earlier experiments and textures from Rome I started to look at creating new patterns on the skin of the piazza, perhaps guiding the interpreter towards the reliquary. Then also, how could the drains relate to my building? Could rules of site become rules of building? Perhaps there are glass slices underground that follow the route of the pipes. Perhaps there are water features that extend into the building. Or maybe the drains as rules of site become the beginning of chaos in the library.
67
burrowing a building This 1:500 plaster and balsa model developed the concept of temporary versus the permanent. The adapted versus the adopted. The materials helped establish these different roles and their resulting forms. In the cave, belly of the library, a wider exchange area emerges from the passage, mirroring the freedom of the realm above.
68
69
A more resolved look at the developed split square and how people might respond to the new morphology. In orange are the different approach routes of interpreter and explorer Placement of pavilion at centre of road line intersection.
70
71
plans: take one
72
Celebrating the idea of the cave, my first plan sketches developed a dynamic open plan ‘sprawl’ from which secondary structures would emerge. Levels and pockets would create breathing and reference points on the journey. As I drew out variations, I began to consider how the role shaped the journey; in this was the division of space suggests something different to the user types. I began to think of edges and covered / uncovered space as considered boundaries between or towards the separate journey. For example, can the interpreters / solvers on the upper floor look directly down into the passageway? Do the explorers / makers sense themselves being watched? How far can each stage overlap? Generally I was working towards a scheme that isolated the first steps of the journey then gradually allowed communication between the users towards the exchange. My question was then: which way from there? Back the way they came or is there a role reversal? Maybe this depends on whether or not the puzzle is complete.
The exchange: occurs either between users swapping solved for unsolved, question for solution or between the puzzle’s start and end state. A user that solves an unsolved puzzle has exchanged the original for a new form.
73
Pavilion: straddles end of playground, doubling as interior reliquary and shelter on other side. Beams create gateway to play area along edge. Inside is the reliquary: unsolved puzzles are like relics, not quite whole. Drains and pattern of skylights being developed.
74
Oval form of reliquary continued down levels: spinning focal point. The more impossible or broken puzzles naturally are discarded on their way down to the room of greatest challenge. Solved puzzles are found in a dividing structure down the passageway. Explorers want to take them apart and find out how they work, making the unsolved puzzle. Additionally, a stepped platform structure creates mini-studies bridging zones.
75
structure and pattern
76
Reverting back to a malleable material to model levels and slopes in an adaptable way. Starting to consider rules of pattern as structural. And if these rules are to be expressed, do they suggest a certain movement or moment? A pattern of beam spans create a regularity to journey points and emphasise change in scale of space when emerging from passage into exchange.
77
gateway / mast The library appears at night like a vast vessel - Alberto Manguel The pavilion is a timber puzzle-box that marks itself through its sloping beams and mast-like connotation. A boat built through human craft, sailing on the piazza, it presents itself as the beginning of a voyage. In the day a glazed roof allows light to pierce through the oculus below. During evening, the glazed lower walls shine through the cladding to indicate the life of a realm under the surface.
78
Sketch experiments for the reliquary pavilion. In contrast to the abstract shape of the cave element, the pavilion is meant to mirror the rules of the wooden puzzle: made of parts that fit together in a simple way.
79
80
reliquary revisited As the dividing element between market and playground, the pavilion creates a focus point that actually serves to encourage movement between the different zones of the piazza. Opening up the level edge of the playground, this becomes a free gathering point where the Via Luigi Santini ends. At this point the sloped beams suggest passage onto the main piazza. By drawing people closer, it indicates new route options. From the market area, people are led towards the peak of the mast, and find themselves entering the reliquary from the corner. What seemed to be a puzzle-box on the exterior actually follows the interior oval perimeter of my original model, with space defined by shelf elements. Entering at an oblique, an undefined route is suggested through spinning motion around the perimeter. This ritualistic circumambulation continues down the levels until the solvers find their unsolved puzzle and can emerge into the main space.
81
through the cave Sectional sketches of the entire building, within the site context, helped to configure elements that pierce through layers. Trying to keep the subterranean spaces as close to availability of natural light, my sections had become rather flat and uninteresting. Experimenting with textures and materials that could suggest an interaction between these layers helped to tie these planes together and aspects such as how the orientation of these elements might change from zone to zone. I also had to begin considering accessibility and whether the descent after the hidden door was sloped or stepped and how this might change the theatricality of the experience.
82
83
84
sharing steps
85
While experimenting with the stepped structure that bridges the exchange levels, I also considered aspects of materiality and process. In the spirit of the playground above, I was interested in how elements of construction such as formwork could be re-purposed inside the library as part of the flexible structures. This free transitory space could be a space made and remade to different configurations in puzzle spirit. The platforms would correspond to spaces on a board game that could be navigated in a series of ways. The downwards motion would take solvers and their puzzle across into the light while the structure partially shadows the passage underneath as it gradually emerges under the glazing.
86
87
extending an invitation Initial ideas about display and bookshelves had led to the idea of a forest of extending elements that objects might be found between. The horizontal arms of the oval reliquary follow from ideas of even my first model. First, there is the offering action: the puzzle seems to be presented intimately and decisively. The varying spans and shapes present each small wooden puzzle as a unique set of parts and rules. But there is also the romantic idea of the lost, unreachable space. The puzzle is emerging from something intangible, giving no clues about the coherence from which it originated.
early stalactite idea
88
89
90 An alchemist in his untidy laboratory - Le Grand
The Watchmaker - Corbis
a workshop
In which the role of the maker is not just the maker of the unsolved, but of entirely new puzzles. There was something about the flux of the piazza that made me want the library to be an ever growing, ever changing collection that reflected the autonomy of the local community. And, following the theme of continuing and repurposing rules of site, materials could be sourced from on-site waste.
91
http://keepingbusy.com
re-routing Before the review lite I was concerned about having lost the dynamic and bespoke forms I had started with in some of my pre-Rome experiments while trying to resolve structure and accessibility. Combining my zoned routes with level changes and the introduction of the workshop space, I began to formulate smaller moments that responded to complexities in the journies. For example, a small passage from the workshop to the front of the main exchange leads through the lower circle, creating a secret condition for the introduction or reintroduction of new or fixed puzzles. Another change was to introduce interlocking level changes that are slight enough not to interrupt space, but clear enough to define the shape of different routes.
92
93
start space: SOLVER
94
start space: MAKER
95
Development of the oval room as growing more intimate on descent as it morphs into a circular shape. This bottom circle represents a clarity that the difficult and broken puzzles are shuffling towards as they descend. It’s from this space that they are taken for repair and reconsideration, passing under the second oculus. Through sketches I also consider what the movement around this changing shape is for users, from the dramatic breakout on the -1 floor to the more modest edge passageway on -2.
section draft 1:250
96
a descent Opting for the ramped approach, dividing structures revert back to my original idea of edge pockets. Taking the same form as the horizontal forest in the reliquary, these are not meant to be deceptive on entry, instead allowing self motivated ‘entrapment’.
97
section draft 1:250
Forging routes vs routes forged. As explorers meet the solved puzzle, their explorative route is already concreted in the past. It has been forged, is now permanent. The focus of route making is now in the narrative of a new puzzle, using the finality of route and solved puzzle as a solution precedent. On the other hand, as interpreters descend into the exchange, a series of moveable steps allow them to create their own paths into the social area.This encourages an experimentation necessary in the solving process. 98
99
Adapting vertical elements to define routes: mimicking flow.
100
The linearity of objects forming structures of entrapment. Route as the dynamic thing interrupting this.
101
coded layers
On -1, the platform is the breakout zone of the oval library. Solvers reflect on their chosen puzzle, able to look out and across the exchange and people passing through the piazza above.
102
The exchange arm, on -2, is a flat plate that houses a free area for dismantling and experimenting. Under the glazing, here roles exchange / morph, lending their perspectives.
The passage is a sloped descent from a secret entrance, interacting with but not accessing the other route. It sweeps under the steps, into the workshop before a backstage entrance to the exchange.
interaction and layered distinction of zones
103
plan
s 1:
104
500
representation and inhabitation Before the review lite, I started designing the pipe and skylight elements together and in line with the dynamic shaping to route paths. As the pierced strip defines approach and entry on the piazza, it becomes and divided, pocketed zone within the building. This is achieved by taking the copper drain pipe elements and using them as links driven through the platform, breaking this reflective area into smaller light pools. There is also a relationship to the workshop as stalactite-like mini lights, maintaining boundaries by linking through object rather than view. From the review it was clear I needed to reconfigure my representation, as the textures make plans difficult to read. Lacking conventional fittings like bookshelves, I thought designing some furniture would help to humanise the spaces and help me explore how to create a circulation of exchange rather than a linear flow.
105
Chidori Furniture by Kengo Kuma and Associates images from designboom, Dezeen, homedit.
an active exchange As the exchange is the area for active experimentation with the puzzles from both perspectives, I thought it was important that the inhabitation of the space reflect this physical creativity. Using the Chidori Furniture as precedent, I imagined an incremental grid that would allow user definition of both circulation and gather points. The Chidori joint involves twisting the stick elements into place, creating units that can be stacked. Wanting to form a permanent grid that could be adapted, like in the stairs element, I considered a series of vertical posts between which horizontal elements could be laid to create surfaces. Due to a more limited motion, the joint system would have to be simpler, but would still relate to the fitting together of a puzzle. 106
Experimenting with orientation of structure to encourage certain movement and a pattern for meeting.
107
part 4: [re]solved
108
109
110
The puzzle library is a place of making and solving. In this duality, and its overlap, it becomes a place of exchange. Routes are sensitive to the spatial psychologies of these two roles, at first giving direction and orientation as “clues� to solvers while letting makers stumble upon or forge their own way, while later allowing roles to meet and morph. The library is a thing of movement: puzzles moving and people. Main routes and secret passages create an environment of gameplay in which users have the autonomy to change their role or route within the flexibility of internal structures. And, between these complexities, rules of play are expressed through the building’s own pattern language and its continuation of the site conditions around it. Topolographical shift and extension of drains into design elements extend site into the library. An open plan exchange mimics the freedom and flexibility of the piazza, with its intimate mini-streets on the edges reflected in various enclosed routes in the building. Timber structures placed in the cave refer to the feeling of flux and adaptability of above ground market, while also creating a playfulness with their puzzle-like construction or moveability. The scheme serves various stages of the puzzle solving and puzzle making processes, while also designing for the flow and replacement of the puzzles themselves across zones and their transformations. Like the puzzles, users too can transform, changing their role and direction after they have encountered the exchange. A few of possibilities: Solver finds unsolved puzzle, solves puzzle, places puzzle in passageway shelves on way out through secret entrance. Maker finds solved puzzle, dismantles puzzle, cannot re-solve, places in unsolved oval on way out through pavilion. Solver finds unsolved puzzle, cannot solve, meets maker and together solve, offers to maker as new precedent. Maker finds solved puzzle, uses as precedent to make new puzzle, offers new unsolved puzzle to solver in exchange.
111
112
route: interpreter/solver
Guided approach: treated floor, mast indicator, depth change, entrance cover.
113
114
Inside the reliquary: offering arms and unexpected descent.
115
1
2 3
116
Descending into the oval: reredos of puzzles.
Puzzle reflection between the pipes.
Into the exchange: from focus to action.
117
3
1 2
118
The exchange: an adaptable grid for changing perspectives
A meeting in the middle: final solutions.
119
120
route: explorer/maker
Tucked into the walkway behind permanent market stalls, the secret entrance is a portal almost like any other, save for it’s incongruent placement and being carved into an existing fabric. This portal is not an exchange but for transportation; the explorer begins the descent by surrendering to whim and the question of the unknown realm that this vessel travels to.
121
1
3
122
2
From portal to forest: solved puzzle on axis.
Moments of capture: periodic clearings.
From passageway to underpass.
123
3
4
124
2 1
In the workshop: making under the copper pipes.
Re-using materials to create new puzzles.
Secret passage to reliquary of the impossible.
Mended, new puzzles passing oculus to exchange.
125
reliquary
circles of the unsolved
unsolvable / broken
section: activity
126
1:200
the exchange
workshop mends and makes
127
puzzle reflection
sharing stairs
the exchange
128
problem puzzle portal
1:200
129
130
1:200
131
132
N
1:600 site plan
133
134
N
1:250 floor 0
135
136
N
1:250 floor -1
137
138
N
1:250 floor -2
139
140 1:250 section A
141
142 1:250 section B
143
144 1:250 section C
145
a model
146
Making this 1:100 model was very challenging. The plaster mould design involved a deep interrogation of the spaces I’d created, how they linked and how they could be divided in order to remove different elements of the foam board I was using. The size of the mould and the amount of plaster required also meant the slippage margin was far higher than I was used to and it soon became clear that a simple single mould and pour method wasn’t going to work. After casting the main body, I worked incrementally so that I had a clear idea of how each process was working. I feel that if I had planned to work in this way, I could have managed to create a neater series of cast elements that would slot together. As it was, a great deal of sanding and re-shaping was necessary after casting. Nevertheless, casting my building in its entirety gave me a clearer idea, in both the making and finished product, of the nature and quality of spaces. Having only modelled small sections in the final stages of designing, having these spaces in their interrelated context felt like the beginning of a process rather than the end of one. In hindsight, I would have liked to have done some more spatial, less detailed, large models as I was in the final stages of the scheme.
147
148
Left: emerging from reliquary level -1 Right: workshop with problem puzzle portal -2 Bottom left: oval ring shelves -1 Bottom right: puzzle portal from within oval -2
149
150
The materials and colours used in the model represent the philosophies of different elements, with the plaster indicating homogenous ground / concrete, the red card a lighter, flexible architecture, the black a surface condition, and the copper as a conversation device between otherwise isolated elements.
151
final thoughts
152
My final collection of documents to communicate the a puzzle place project I have developed over the semester feels a lot like how I imagine the library itself: always in motion. As with the ceaseless solving and dismantling of puzzles, I still felt the project growing and changing as I collated this portfolio. There have been moments when realisations were made and things fell into place, but there are still moments that speak to me as able to better adapt to the building’s narrative. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the various levels of experimentation throughout the project, even if things were to be later resolved or reverted. Initial inside-out design was incredibly helpful with forming an image of a library that originated from a human environment rather than an abstract plan. In relating these spaces together and to different roles, I feel my building looks less elegant in plan as elements don’t originate in this form, as they usually would. Nevertheless, the idea of designing around a story, and then communicating this story was a challenging process in the best way. Moving from the critical introspection of last semester’s architecture school to the romantic idea of the library allowed space for playfulness, humour. And, moving from group work to an intense individual project allowed me to apply new knowledge and approaches to my method, as well as using a greater understanding of the areas and limits of my own ability.
153