USF SACD Masters Project - "Broken City" Jose Gonzalez by Jose Gonzalez

jose gonzalez

Broken City an architectural exploration of fear

Jose Gonzalez Student

Robert MacLeod Thesis Chair

Nancy Sanders Thesis Commitee

jurors

Nina Hofer

Associate Professor, University of Florida.

Paul O. Robinson

Professor, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture, Slovenia

Oana Stanescu

oana stanescu architecture. founder of Family and the Friends of + Pool non-profit.

Juan Ferreira

olson kundig Architecture, Seattle, WA USF sacd m.arch 2015.

Casey Gonzalez USF sacd m.arch 2015.

A masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research project presented to the Graduate School of Architecture and Community Design at the University of South Florida in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Architecture.

Dedication The past couple of years have been an adventure on itself, pushing me to learn more than just architecture. This book is dedicated to all the people that in one way or another were there for me in during the duration of this unavailable journey. To Robert MacLeod, whose unconditional support, help, collaboration, inspiration, has changed my world in unimaginable ways. Thank you for always trusting me. To Mary Hayward, whose help and unyielding support made possible for me to write this book today, by taking me this far in this rollercoaster. To my architecture family, Ale, Alex, Andrea, Arelis, Cesar, David, Daniel (Kinjo), Eric, Gabriel, Jailyn, Kim, Kristine, Marie, Mouzel, Natalia, and the rest of SACD 2018 class, whose friendship and constant support pushed me to always aim to be a better person for them and for myself. To my sister, whose love and understanding gives me the strength to always keep moving forward. To my parents, whose sacrifices and unconditional love have forge the person that I am today. Without their effort and commitment this path would have been just a dream in the head of a rebellious teenager.

Index

Landscapes of Fear 15 contextual exploration

The Chimera 27 fear in the city

Place 45

exploration of a site.

Memoir of a Place 55 a memorial in battleship island

The Meander 91 experience of a memorial.

Prelude Writing about fear, traditional speaking, should not be a delightful experience nor a common thing to do. If we pause for a moment and think about the word, several images will come to mind, all with a dark a negative connotation. Surely we have all experience fear before in countless and unimaginable ways; fear of the dark, anxiety in strange settings, supernatural events, fear of a dark and desolate street in Nebraska Ave., fear of war or natural calamities, the list is endless. Fear is felt by individuals, making it something of a subjective matter. In every study of the human culture and our societies, fear is a core element â&#x20AC;&#x201D; either covert as in stories of courage and success, or explicit as in works of phobias and human conflict. Fear is not by any means specific to human beings, on the contrary all higher animals and living species know it as an emotional tool that signals danger and is necessary for survival. It is important to note, that fear, have a bigger impact in humans and this is directly related to how evolve the society is. The more evolve and advance the society, the more fears this group of people will experience. In the material world fear have impacted the way we live, in our house, our cities, or fields. Every dwelling is a fortress built to defend its occupants against the elements, every city wall was create to protect the villages and the citizens of that town, every castle was create to show power and thus send a clear message to those looking to oppress them. It is a mistake to think that fear is an alien element in the constant evolution of our species, since we are always in a constant fight against the things we are afraid of â&#x20AC;&#x201D;be it rational or irrational. The study of fear is therefore not limited to the study of withdrawal and retrenchment; at least implicitly, it also seeks to understand growth, daring and experience.

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Inception According to the Oxford Dictionary the word fear means “An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.” This peculiar and well know emotion is, according to several studies, experienced by all living species that inhabit this planet. Humans, in particular, have a closer and more intimate relationship with it, sometimes more than what we should. It is important to notice that fear is also a crucial response system — if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate threats. However, more often than not we fear scenarios that might be far from life-or-death, confining ourselves to miss and experience more around us. Where does fear come from? The answer is in our brain. The human brain is the most intricate and complex entity on our planet and perhaps the most complicated, and the creation of fear is not accident at all. The brain uses fear in countless forms and it serves an enormous purpose for us humans and our way of living. Fear is by far the most essential emotion we experiences in our everyday and yet is the least examined of human feelings. This in a way explain why as we grow up we are encouraged to see fear as a weakness, something that comes from that childish part of our imagination, something to discard, something to not pay proper attention. Is no secret that modern society is afraid to fear, seeking to find ways to eradicate and control those elements that can cause fear within our lives; Nevertheless, fear is interestingly overused throughout history as one of the main forms of manipulation and persuasion. From religion, to the everyday parenting, fear is a catalyst that allows us to control those that can be influence by its power. This duality of scenarios have impacted greatly the core format of living and our way of experiencing things, allowing us in a way to create tools and places essentially inspired on our own fears. Places that have move through generations and merge with our cultural costumes and our interaction with others, almost a seamless acquisition from our past that link fear to all generations and times. In the large spectrum of things, some areas of our culture have been directly impacted by fear; some obvious examples are our literature, politics, economics, art, and more. Having this in mind an important question comes to surface; does fear have an effect in architecture? Architecture at its core deals with that constant relationship between objects and feeling, spaces and experience. It can be argue that architecture without a true understanding of experience cannot be called architecture. These factors bring to the table some unknowns regarding fear, and thus it extends in the creative and experiential world of architecture. Can be fear an inspiration for architecture? Trying to move beyond the stereotypical idea of a haunted house or a cemetery — places that most people picture when this question is asked. The answer seems to be a simple one, yes it have inspired directly and/or indirectly the world of architecture. We know that fear have been a core element in the evolution of human kind, and we also know the reach of it have impacted deeply our different cultures and the way we behave. Nevertheless, why is not a clearer? Why is fear never part of the main discussions? Is fear a limit to architecture? The idea behind this document is to explore the concept of fear in architecture and its components in order to use them to create a product (project) that can lay a positive impact in those that experience it. In way the more we know the better we are as people.

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Landscapes of Fear contextual exploration

Fear is a big part of everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life, and to understand how important it is we need to center our attention of those detail. Singular elements that together allow us to see a larger and better picture of our world, which translate in more power to our mind, and less power to the material and scary world. Fear can be found everywhere, in infinite forms and shapes, and that kind of versatility can easily merge into any culture or society. Fear is more than just an emotion that triggers the right moves to escape a dangerous situation, is more than just a chemical reaction within our system. Fear is part of our mind and part of who we are, and the more we know it the more we can appreciate its role in our life.

“Duérmete niño, duérmete ya... Que viene el Coco y te comerá.” “Sleep child, sleep now... Here comes the Coco and he will eat you”

The Bogeyman Known in Spanish as â&#x20AC;&#x153;El Cocoâ&#x20AC;?, the bogeyman is a mythical ghostmonster, found all around the globe, commonly used as figure of speech representing an irrational or exaggerated fear. Traditionally, parents would invoke the Coco as a way of discouraging their children from misbehaving; they sing lullabies or tell rhymes warning their children that if they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t obey their parents, el Coco will come and get them and then eat them. This mythical creature is a great example on how our culture has use fear as a tool to persuade and manipulate human behavior. Artists and painters have use the cultural representation of the Bogeyman, and allow us to bring a realistic image or form to this creature. This combination of element pushes the imagination of adults and children, creating an extraordinary argument between reality and imagination.

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Imagination vs. Reality Imagination, experience, and reality are the core elements of fear. The relationship between this three components, gives shape to the way we experience fear at all moment. Since this emotion is felt by people in an individual matter it is considered to be subjective, the responses to it vary between each time amid people. (f.2) shows the correlation between imagination, experience, and memory; showcasing how differently the organization of fear is with respect to a child and an adult. Children lives in a magical world of innocence and joy, a place that is vivid and full of imaginationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; thanks to it short age and lack of knowledge and experience of the world. On the other hand, an adult owns an extensive collection of personal experiences that portrait the world in a different way. Fears to certain scenarios may lie dormant and be wakened by a series of changes or personal experiences. Experience will create a more concrete idea of what is real, allowing the person to feel less afraid of its surrounding. For this reason, is it easy to see that kids have a tendency to be more afraid of irrational fears â&#x20AC;&#x201D;products of the imagination, while adults tend to be more afraid of scenarios that are closer to reality.

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Slow Manifesto lebbeus woods

The new cities demand an architecture that rises from and sinks back into fluidity, into the turbulence of a continually changing matrix of conditions, into an eternal, ceaseless flux—-architecture drawing its sinews from webbings of shifting forces, from patterns of unpredictable movements, from abrupt changes of mind, alterations of position, spontaneous disintegrations and syntheses—-architecture resisting change, even as it flows from it, struggling to crystallize and become eternal, even as it is broken and scattered—-architecture seeking nobility of presence, yet possessed of the knowledge that only the incomplete can claim nobility in a world of the gratuitous, the packaged, the promoted, the already sold—-architecture seeking persistence in a world of the eternally perishing, itself giving way to the necessity of its moment—-architecture writhing, twisted, rising, and pinioned to the uncertain moment, but not martyred, or sentimental, or pathetic, the coldness of its surfaces resisting all comfort—-architecture that moves, slowly or quickly, delicately or violently, resisting the false assurance of stability—-architecture that comforts, but only those who ask for no comfort—-architecture of gypsies, who are driven from place to place, because they have no home—-architecture of circuses, transient and unknown, but for the day and night of their departure—-architecture of migrants, fleeing the advent of night’s bitter hunger—-architecture of a philosophy of interference, the forms of which are infinitely varied, a vocabulary of words spoken only once, then forgotten—-architecture bending and bending more, in continual struggle against gravity, against time, against, against, against—-barbaric architecture, rough and insolent in its vitality and pride—-sinuous architecture, winding endlessly and through a scaffolding of reasons—-architecture caught in sudden light, then broken in a continuum of darkness—-architecture embracing the sudden shifts of its too-delicate forms, therefore indifferent to its own destruction—-architecture that destroys, but only with the coldness of profound respect—-neglected architecture, insisting that its own beauty is deeper yet—-abandoned architecture, not waiting to be filled, but serene in its transcendence—-architecture that transmits the feel of movements and shifts, resonating with every force applied to it, because it both resists and gives way—-architecture that moves, the better to gain its poise—-architecture that insults politicians, because they cannot claim it as their own—-architecture whose forms and spaces are the causes of rebellions, against them, against the world that brought them into being—-architecture drawn as though it were already built—architecture built as though it had never been drawn—

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In the manifesto, Lebbeus woods, approach the understanding of architecture in a very romantic and passionate way. Luring us with concepts and elements, those almost feel like the description of a person. We can without much effort find ourselves within his words, and almost feel that he is describing the city that we live on. The notion that architecture can be ever-changing is extremely powerful and also very true. Since the beginning of time, architecture has become the core entity of culture, shaping our horizons and shifting our perspective. Italo Calvino in his novel “ Invisible Cities” present to us a similar concept, a city that can be described in million ways, a city that is always changing with time and its people. Yi-Fu Tuan the author of “Landscapes of fear” presents us the idea that the city is the manifestation of humanities’ greatest aspiration towards perfect order and harmony in both its architectural setting and its social ties. The city, like Woods indicate, is constantly changing and thanks to this chaos can emerge. A city that grows without control, transforming too quick for its inhabitants to adapt, can easily become in the perfect playground for fear. Forcing the city, in this way, to fail and collapse. Since the beginning of civilization as we know it, several cities have catapulted to their apex and fail tremendously afterwards; creating a scenario that is always latent no matter where in the world we point at. Large cities like Babylon or other not so big like Havana (Cuba), creating a base where fear can closely be related to fear both in the architectural and individual level.

Analysis On Risk: experimental scenario

Architecture can be found all around the world, and is usually hard to understand how important it is until we understand the role of architecture in the culture development of a community. Many cities have approach architecture to create a language and /or a form of expression, creating this way an image that can hold all their traditions together. When a city suffer a damaging event, natural disasters, war, economical failures, social disaster, etc… architecture also, plays an important role to bring back the life of the cities affected. For some people this brings opportunities to start over and bring a new aura to the place, for some other is all about preserving the past and somehow celebrate the events that once took place in the city. I took the liberty to re-interpret and analyze Lebbeus Woods’ text “War and Architecture”, mostly since this manifesto hold within an important message about how architecture deals with war and vise versa. Using the principles proposed by Woods, I was able to see that war is a fundamental part of architecture, which is usually not a common line of thought. In his principles he talks about the idea of bringing the city back to normal, suggesting that architecture have the power to heal the city and its people if donre correctly. The idea is to restore ‘normalcy,’ where the normal is the way of living lost as a result of the war. The idea considers the war as only an interruption of an ongoing flow of the normal. Many of the buildings and structures in the war-damaged city are relatively salvageable, and because the finances of individuals and remaining institutions have been depleted by war and its privations, that salvageable building stock must be used to build the ‘new’ city. And because the new ways of living will not be the same as the old, the reconstruction of old buildings must enable new ways and ideas of living. The familiar old must be transformed, by conscious intention and design, into the unfamiliar new.

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The Chimera fear in the city

A chiÂˇmeÂˇra is a single organism composed of cells with distinct genotypes, an abstract specimen that hold within a complex composition. Using this concept and duality, and inspired by Lebbus Woods principles on War and Architecture, The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, I took the opportunity to create an story of my own, one that could help me understand more the consequences of fear in a city and how architecture in general could be used as a medium to portrait such a story. Centering on the experiences and the reinvention of the city, its relationship with the people that were part of the story, and our understanding of what happened â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at least to the best of my knowledge.

Berlin

experimental scenario Berlin is without doubt one of the most important cities in the planet, not only for its formidable and chaotic history, playing a role in several life changing wars for in our history. First documented in the 13th century and situated at the crossing of two important historic trade routes, which permitted the city to grow, allowing art and science to grow largely in the city. There are 180 museums in Berlin, making it one of the cities with more museums per capita in the world. About 44% of Berlin is made up of parks, recreational areas, woods and rivers. The 2,500 public spaces make a relaxing green contrast to the city’s great array of museums and cultural attractions. Not to mention that Berlin is one of the few cities that can lay claim the accolade of having 3 Unesco World Heritage sites. However, we all know berlin for other more impactful events in our modern history. WWII and the cold world are for Germany and Berlin itself a constant remainder of the dark history that took place in Europe, which affected Berlin on its fibers, culturally and emotionally. The capital of Nazi Germany was subject to 363 air raids during the Second World War. Leaving behind a massive destruction, making the city was hardly recognizable. The consequences of WWII, left Germany divided in 2 parts and in between a wall that segregated the whole country. Forcing both sides to grew uneven and drastically different. Yet, On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic began the construction of a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between the East and West Berlin. The solemn purpose of the Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state. The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. To this day, the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War.

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Her Name is Berlin introduction

Her name is Berlin, a captivating lady, one that with diamond eyes and a beauty, capable of driving even the cleverest crazy. For a long time we knew her for her constant desires of a better future, for her love to others, and for always be the fighther of a better day. With her languages and traditions, others could only be jealous while watching her dance towards the sun in her valleys.

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Intervention city in chaos

However, one day everything darkness choke aura. Her colors took a tone like pain and those closer to her were lost in a sea of tears. Her nights were starless and obscene, filled with blood in raids against her own thoughts. The passion of a man hypnotized her, pushing her to give up everything she once was, lying on her knees made it reigns before an absolute power.

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Freedom back to normal

After so much pain, she did all in her power to release herself from the tyranny of a man that was too toxic for the future she wanted. Her fears were the strength that pushes her over the edge, taking down all the walls created by the system, bringing together the best of herself and those near to her. A clear example of perseverance and the living proof of the saying of â&#x20AC;&#x153;after the storm there will be sunshineâ&#x20AC;?.

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Resolution the new beginning

Today she is part of larger conversation; the sour taste of the past is part of a conversation â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to dark in essence to tell in a normal story. For some people, Berlin is a hero; she knows everything about those that scarified their life, in order to her back to normal. Falling was the signal she was asking for, and with every fall a new beginning started, only becoming stronger as she keeps growing with the rest of us in the world.

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Fragment of a City conceptual analaysis

Based on the history of the city of Berlin during WWII and the Cold War, the story of “Berlin” brings to life a character that wants to mimic the vividness used by Lebbues Woods “Slow Manifesto”. The idea was to create a story where the main persona was the city itself, describing it as a person figure. At the same time inspired by “the adventures of Pinocchio”, the storyline aims to present a positive lesson from a narrative that carries such a negative and dark background. One can argue that the sense of destruction and sorrow creates within the perfect playground for fear to exist. This however, changes when the passion and desire to go back to normal kicks in, driving the city towards a new future; One that properly represent, while respecting, the true behind its dark past. The idea of a ruin, feels correct during the creation of the images. Each image tries to bring an architecture language that is born from the leftovers of the city, and how each piece reacts to it its unique per stage. This is true in real life, since in essence, each moment in ones life will inspire our creativity and our way of interpreting the present time. The architecture aimed to be subversive, but intentionally respecting the character of each image. Thinking of the idea of a place for meditation and self-discovery, the idea of a series of memorial became a platform for the concept behind the architecture. Architecturally speaking a Memorial is a structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times. Each memorial was intended to represent the time and history of Berlin experiences, bring present, past, and future together in a abstract architectural way.

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Place

exploration of a site. After exploring the idea of ruin, architecture, fear, and memorial. Searching for a place that could hold within these concepts became close to a challenge, forcing to study several type of events and places around the globe. The search aimed to find a place, where the â&#x20AC;&#x153;cityâ&#x20AC;? conditions were not close to stable, mixed preferably with a dark and obscure background. At the same time, I aimed to find a place that was not necessarily conditioned because a of war or terrorist attack, avoiding this way areas where man conflicts would not have a repercussion on the site and the project. A place where architecture in general could bring a new light, or a place of relive and appreciation, all this inspired by the study of the chimeras and Lebbeus Woodsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; texts.

Chernobyl

the radioactive town The city of Chernobyl, located Chernobyl is about 56 miles northeast of Kiev, and approximately 87 miles southwest of the Belarusian city of Gomel and 16 km from Ukraineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s border with Belarus. Mostly know as the stage of one of the most catastrophic nuclear accidents in history, called the Chernobyl disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. This accident on April 26 forced the evacuation of approximate 14,000 people, leaving behind a ghost time in decay and completely abandoned. The abandonment of the place and the chaotic consequences of the nuclear explosion pushed the city to the limit, a horrific scene almost taken from a terror movie. With time and without the care of the habitants, buildings and roads started to deteriorate. Mixed with an unreachable zone for both people and fauna â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at least safe enough to be reached. Several attempts have taken place, in order to make the city in what reachable for visitors, at least in a safer matter. However, the high levels of radiation and the constant danger from the leaking reactor make this place extremely unstable. Although, several animals and plants have started to inhabit what once was an active city full of life, specialist believe that The site will not be viable for habitation for at least 1,000 years.

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Fukushima, Japan

daiichi nuclear disaster

Fukushima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the TĹ?hoku region, approximately 162 miles from the metropolitan city of Tokyo. Fukishima came to reach international attention on March 11, 2011, After a 9.0 earthquake occurred off coast of northern Japan. The aftermath of this natural event, were worst that the actual earthquake, a month later officials upgraded the disaster at the site to level 7 of 7, a rare occurrence not seen since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The evacuation forced 160,000 to leave the area surrounded the plant, a number that to some people since to be unjustified, but Japanese officials reported that the consequences of the meltdown were still for then unknown at that time. This massive relocation of people, created fear on the population, and an estimate of 1,600 deaths occurred due to the stressful evacuation conditions. Similar to Chernobyl, was completely abandoned, transforming this city in an infamous ghost time. Pictures of the site years after the event, show a town in complete decay, with several structures falling apart from the lack of maintenance and the out of control growth of nature.

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Hashima Island, Japan battleship Island

Hashima is an abandoned island lying about 9 miles from the city of Nagasaki, in southern Japan. The16-acre Island was known for its undersea coal mines, established in 1887, which operated during the industrialization of Japan. The island reached a peak population of 5,259 in 1959, making it the densest city in the planet at that time. Since acquired by Mitsubishi, the island so a rapid development in its architecture, bring new techniques of construction to island. The islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most notable features are its abandoned concrete buildings, undisturbed except by nature, and the surrounding sea wall. After the complete evacuation of the island, and for over 20 years the island was left at the mercy of the sea. Buildings and different structures starting collapsing and the scenery went from a full vivid town, to a deserted warzone. While the island is a symbol of the rapid industrialization of Japan, it is also a reminder of its history as a site of forced labor prior to and during the Second World War. During the war era, a large group of people was taken to the island to work on the island, completely isolated to from society, working in a corporate town. All the conditions of the island, created a very tentative scenario. One that was in a way asking to be taken, a land that needed some healing or an abstract system, a place full of potential and in decay. Fear was unconsciously a big part of the site, both with the background story, and the current conditions of the site.

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Decay

Interpretation of a ruin While our cities fail to their systems, before they reach a level of complete destruction, they enter in a process of a decay. Decay is that state where the city can still be itself, but the collapse of its own composition is eminent and there is not much to do, but to wait and pick up the leftovers. However, architecture can create a semi functional system, that partially support and expose the real state of the place. Thinking of Lebbeus Woods text â&#x20AC;&#x153;Take on riskâ&#x20AC;?, we can see that his proposals were not to reconstruct the destroyed cities, but his proposals were there to help heal and re shape what the city used to be. While in decay, the city is still over coming the abandonment, that painful part that exist because of the absences of habitants. In several cases this happens because the people that use to form part of the city, left for reasons that can vary depending on each case. In the majority of those cases, the residents fear to the location, the event, our even the current condition of the place. Here is where the idea of a memorial, expands the horizon of options, and allows us to give to the residents a place to reflect and to understand the what its left of city. There

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Memoir of a Place a memorial in battleship island

Hashima Island, better know as Batlleship island, attracted the attention of many people during in 2001, in the search to bring tourism and other people to the island. Few ideas have been shared, and several organizations have sought to revive what happened in that location. Several individuals think that by providing a place and an opportunity for people to visit, they could help at the same time to heal and in some way improve the lives of those who at one point lived on the island.

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Memory of Fear conceptual models

There is an endless amount of ways to do a memorial, and not really a correct way to do it. For a memorial the first thing that one needs to understand is the people and the location, which is are key elements to make a more impactful program. The visitors are the soul of the place, not only those that will visit, but also those that at one point were part of the event that took place in the site. They will feel the site, experience, and acknowledge the ideas behind the process; they will also modify and perhaps transform the space. This line of thought encourage the design to be delicate, in a way almost as fragile as the location itself, pushing the experiences a bit closer to the real feeling of the site. It is easier to bring a new soul, and sell the idea of renovation and modernization of the place, but the intention here was to create something that will accompany the city in its process of decay. Using what it is already there and transforming the least possible the anatomy of the buildings in the area, the memorial should aim to be a path that can take you as close as possible around the abandoned island.

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Using the elements already given by the island and the current conditions of the place, the program started to grow around it. Almost like the flow of water, that without pushing wants to adapt to the forms dictated by the ground and the buildings, the models mimics the feeling of a chaotic and disrupted place. Looking to understand how to intervene in a place where there is no order nor a consistent path or form. The majority of times, war zone areas have the interesting ways to be inhabited. Using the few resources available, people move thought buildings or what is left over from them, aiming to move as smooth and as incognito as possible. Inspired by the way war ones are treated, the design process aimed to create a path that could bring you as close as possible to the rough terrain of the site, while allowing you to have a safe and less expose experience. That duality of elements helped create the 2 paths in the program, both serving a similar yet opposite concept. For this, I studied the 2 realms of the site, the external realm (f.30) and the internal realm (f.31). Both essential for the base idea behind a memorial, several elements and components found of these realms inspired the way the projects was approached. The external realm with a more organized feel was surrounded by the different forms of circulation. Because of the side and the high density of the city, vertical circulation was a main element, allowing the circulation to be more free and interactive. On the other hand, the internal realm was more chaotic, the constant change of scale of buildings and space inside then, makes de experience challenging and sometimes uncomfortable

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Site Analysis current structures

With a total of 69 different structures, from public buildings like post office, theater, market area, gym, schools, ectâ&#x20AC;Ś to several residential buildings for the different levels of hierarchy in the island, there was a bit of everything in the site. Residents had the basics needs covered, with a several open areas to relax and to wordship. It is important to mention at this moment, that the island was once the densest city on the planet, something that cannot be accomplish with a serious understanding of space and collective identity. After being acquired by Mitsubishi, the island had a great expansion, not only structurally, but also in the actually sides of the island. Several feet of the edge of the island, are in essence extensions of the original island, looking to maximize as much as possible the space available for the residents of the places and the workers.

intervention One natural element in the island and also its core is the mountain in the center of the site. The change of elevation in the island helped to give the name of Battleship Island â&#x20AC;&#x201D; thanks to the form that it resembles when seen from far. This important component, is a big part of the circulation of the island, several walk ways and buildings connect to it, in order to facilitate the movement of the people around the perimeter. Here is where the first intervention of my project aim to be, mostly because is the best place to bring people around the island to have a clear view of the site. Using 3 specific moments, the intervention follows the shape of the mountain and using the current buildings to create a path that maximize the exposure of the visitor to the island. The first on, the threshold or entrance, is the place where the visitors are introduced to the island. After being able to see in their journey, on water, the visitors gather in a small intervention. Similar to a museum, the starting portion of the project aims to educate those who visit the site about the events that took place in the island. The second one is the transition point, here the paths start to separate looking to create 2 paths were visitors can learn from the island and the surroundings buildings in a different way. One of the paths is external and tries to give a raw image of the island and the state of it, the other one is more of an internal path, this one looks to interiorize the emotional and dark past of the island. For family members and those visiting, this might be a more educational yet sensitive pathway. The last stage on the intervention is the reflection floor, on the top of the mountain both paths will meet again. Here they will meet in the shrine, the most sacred place in the island. The intention here is to find yourself within the journey, exposing yourself to buildings and stories that might be labeled as unstable. Here is the moment when decay and fear partner up to evoke an strong and intimate connection with the visitors.

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The Meander experience of a memorial.

The most important part of the project is the how to circulate the site, especially since the current conditions of the island allow a very limited window for this to happen. By attaching the program to the mountain in the middle of the island, and by using the strong foundation of several of the builds near it, the program can exist and push the boundaries of opportunity for visitors. The internal experience as well as the external, aims to create an intimate connection with everyone that wants to be part of this experience. Using the same current materials and structure, the path and the rest of the intervention, will decay at a similar rate than the rest of the island. This will produce an experience that is unique every time the persons can visit the site.

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“The Island’s present forlorn state is a lesson to contemporary Japan about what happens to a country that exhausts its own resources ”

The external nature of the pathway, will aim to bring the chaos closer to the visitors, tailoring the experiences around several famous sectors of the island — like the stairs to hell, the large apartment complexes, and the hospital. Here the goal is to be able to experience the accumulated reinforced concrete ruins that do not seem to exist except Hashima. Concrete structures built in ancient Rome are the only competitor, but they do not contain reinforcing steel. Making this place unique in essences, and a possible failure of human civilization, The Island’s present forlorn state is a lesson to contemporary Japan about what happens to a country that exhausts its own resources and depends solely on foreign trade. In that sense, the dead island of Hashima delivers a lively warning about the importance of foresight. It offers a view of the end result of “development,” the fate of a community severed from Mother Earth and engaged in a way of life disconnected from its food supply. In short, Hashima is what the world will be like when we finish urbanizing and exploiting it: a ghost planet spinning through space —silent, naked and useless.

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“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself” Franklin D. Roosevelt