Abstract Olbia appears durable, but it is damaged by successive temporal interventions that fail to make virtue of their temporality. If modernity has taught us anything, it is to accept that architecture is impermanent. So, why does everything have to remain durable? The project provides that which is necessary to understand the city’s fluxes, making explicit that which is currently made inexplicit by its own territorial rigidity. Five narrators play out the project. Five para-sites, or sub-narratives of these tense relations, call upon enzymatic conditions of otherness to reveal tension. A tectonic that achieves such revelation embodies the relations of temporal and durable existing within this state of tension, or flux. In the search for a tectonic necessary to exist within such flux we develop two processes: that of delaminating, or deconstructing layered logics; and that of the layering or collapsing of information. Such
layers
can
be
conceived
as
fields
upon
which
structures,
histories, intensities, scales, narratives (etc…) are transposed. Rather than begin with elements, the project first favours the creation of forces (tensions) necessary to their formation. The narrative can be understood as such force. As the project is enacted through characters/narrators of the tense relations, it is documented as fragments, or Diaries – ways of drawing the metropolitan landscape. Their architectures become a product of the commitment to drawing.
The first volume set out both the urban context and design
impetus
opening
the
fragmented
and
project by
of to
the
thesis
notions
sequential
investigation,
of
a
interventions
landscape failing
to make virtue of their temporal conditions - of which, Isola Bianca is understood a specific point of departure. The
second
volume
introduces
and
records
the
refinement of this developing architectonic through a series of incremental architectural interventions around some of the city’s derelict coastal spaces. It explores an understanding of situation, technology, para-situation and enzymatic territory through the specificity
of
architectural
language
employed
in
order to reveal equally specific conditions of place that currently remain ruinous. This volume, similar to the previous, is divided into a series of sequential narratological drawing exercises - whereby a drawing of landscape, territory and tectonic are allowed to become the primary impetus of the project, as the language of each exercise traverses scales of urban operation, becoming an architecture of plurality and para-situation.
Design Report
Preface II
La Chrisso Appena Arenata [1976] Chrisso was a cargo ship owned by the Cyprus Hero Shipping Co. Ltd, built in 1958 in Oldenburg. The name was changed four occasions first Sorteklint, then Jacqueline, and Coral Bay, before taking the last name, Inalotte Blumenthal wanted to change name to the boat’s misfortune, which here seems to have been the case. The Chrisso ran aground on the night of December 31, 1974 between the island of Reulino and land, on the reefs of Punta La Greca, after it was ripped from its moorings during a storm of wind. Eyewitness accounts tell that the ship tried several times to recover the anchors to find shelter in the landscape behind Tavolara, but all attempts to seek shelter were in vain. There was no injury to the crew, and even the ship reported appreciable damage, however it remained stranded for a long time without a single guard on board. Later it was sold by the shipping company to another company that sought to recover it and put it back in shape for economic gain. There was attempts at recovery, but a fire on board destroyed the ship’s equipment. It was later abandoned and as a hollow whole once more. She was then broken into two pieces and almost demolished by later storms: the central area of the hull, in direct contact with the rocks, had previously gave - detaching the bow and since it has slowly fallen apart. Today above the surface, very little remains.
6
Filo Fragment Fictions
7
Design Report
8
Filo Fragment Fictions
Abandoned Fragments By way of introduction to the various narratives of Filo Fragment Fictions, lets begin by conceiving La Chrisso Appena Arenata as a parody to the city of Olbia. Preceding temporal interventions (in this case, namechanges) have left her blind of a durable identity, and she currently lies victim to changing economic situations. In search of meaning, she is left in ruin. Revival comes in vain, and she is left to the mercy of her new volatile surroundings where waves land and pass. Parts and fragments of parts have, despite visual decay, endured – providing evidence that durability exists amongst tensions of layered of temporal conditions. The architecture of this project and the project of this architecture both serve to divulge in such tension. 9
Contents
Introduction
I
Cartography (PARA-Site)
Body
-
-
Situation & Program II
Building Boat Builders Academy -
-
Fisherman’s Lodge III
Station for a Caretaker
Territory
Enzymatic Territories
IV
V
-
-
Film
Landscape
-
-
Epilogue
Thesis
VI
Appendices
Car·tog·ra·phy n. The art or technique of making maps or charts. [French cartographie : carte, map (from Old French , from Latin charta, carta, paper made from papyrus) + -graphie, writing (from Greek graphiā).] cartographer car·tog’ra·pher n.
Design Report
14
Filo Fragment Fictions
As the previous volume describes, Isola Bianca is treated as a specific point of tension within the city’s veneer condition, mediating and buying into many of the proponents of the modern day urban economic situation. The
House
for
Cartography
embodies
the
notion
of
investigative drawing methods, drawing the fragmented and forgotten landscapes of the city, existing as a machine or apparatus by which a layered process of drawing and re-drawing is undertaken, archived and ultimately celebrated. The fragmented tectonic of Isola Bianca becomes the subject of this process, acting as a landscape of edges and urban residuals to be drawn and recorded.
The protagonist for this architectural
syntax - the deconstruction of the port’s figure - yields an underpinning interrogation of the role of capitalism in the city of Olbia. In
terms
of
characteristic,
the
thesis’
this
emerging
process
yields
socio-economic an
important
attitude towards these conditions, providing the agency a generator of architectural expression that is poised in such a way as to act sensitively to the landscape of Olbia – in both its historic and contemporary settings.
15
Design Report
[Draw]ing as HQ for the Cartographer: Architecture becmes device for Agency
16
Filo Fragment Fictions
Boat as Scaling Device and Agency Laboratory
17
Design Report
A resident of Olbia, the cartographer is a character shaped by the changing territory of Porto Isola Bianca. A continual drawing of the city’s edgescape, its coastline and the territory it inherently occupies. The cartographer becomes obsessed with Olbia’s offshore landscape, spending every waking hour travelling by boat to study there. Isola Bianca, a previously accessible island territory - and once the cartographer’s home – remains dormant, erased by the industrial demands of contemporary industry in the city. With each erasure comes an addition. A yearning for understanding of the island’s current state becomes a vengeful agenda.
18
Filo Fragment Fictions
Palimpsest Drawing Archive
19
Design Report
5
4
2
6
3
20
Filo Fragment Fictions
7
21
Design Report
Cartography Model 1:100
22
Filo Fragment Fictions
1:1 and 1:100 Cartography: The drawing(s), reading(s) and collation(s) become part of the studio situation.
23
Design Report
Language of Destruction Games. Cartographer’s Landscape
Extract from Caretaker’s Diary
February 24th 7.22am The wake of a passing boat slowly reaches the island, crashing against the rocks, awakening me. It is almost certainly a cargo boat – a reminder of the scale and magnitude that act as a constant register of the treatment of landscape in and around the city, spaces where “local” means nothing. At this time of year it is particularly clear.
8:04am The inconsequential tidal movement there is will be prevailing inward, making the boat that little easier to moor at each stop. As I unwillingly clamber up the stairs, the harsh extruded metal panels catch the cold sea wind. 21 steps. A raised space, erupting from the ground, serves my need for a vantage point: from here I can see all but one of my routine destinations - that damn lighthouse obstructs my view of Figarola.
3.
2.
4.
5:47pm The sun will be setting soon. I respite from my walk the along the slow, upward-sloped path towards the lighthouse - about two thirds of the way up stopping to catch look over the bay. Almost peaceful. From the operating station, I hear the creaking of metal slowly moving against itself as a consequence of the waves. I laugh - at least I can find irony in the way the basin controls this apparatus.
Destruction & Detritus: Fragemented Identity. 1. Fracture 2. Detritus 3. Scar 4. Re-Stitch
24
“Let there be light.” – though in this instance, a warning. Illumination nonetheless. The vast, empty territory of the lighthouse mimics the landscape: my only refuge is the small fragments of intensity. At the top of the tower, I smoke and look over the city. From here I can watch the sun set over the mountains. Looking up at the sky, one can sometimes see the light trail of a distant airplane – the few planes that arrive at this time of year serve to forewarn of the traffic to come. The city is set to become Mr Hyde again. A very different place indeed.
Though, Dr Jekyll is equally to blame: a final thought as I retire for the night.
Guide’s Agency
Cartographer’s Landscape
Inspecting Metropolitan Corrosions and Endurances
Filo Fragment Fictions
25
Design Report
[To Draw]
26
Filo Fragment Fictions
[Drawings]
27
Design Report
28
Filo Fragment Fictions
Spatial and Performative Palimpsest.
29
Design Report
30
Filo Fragment Fictions
31
Design Report
32
Filo Fragment Fictions
5
Complexities are at play. Such complexities lie in the space between these pairings, and must be examined. The intense dialogues enacted by the characters are intertwined, as Aristotle’s despotic relationship in his categorisation of
4
oikos
is manifest in the dialogue between
master and slave; maritime and urban; destruction and narrative; solid and void; city and landscape.
6
3 33
Design Report
34
Filo Fragment Fictions
The territories of Olbia are in a state of flux. Such flux is owed to unusual economic conditions and ineffective intervention that fails to recognize its own gravitas, thus allowing urban sprawl to occur sporadically and without sensitivity or specificity for the surrounding landscape. Thus, a series of enzymatic territories are established and used as testing grounds for a re-articulation of the relations between temporal and durable intervention. Edgeworks
is
an
agency
derived
from
drawing
process/
fragmentation of Isola Bianca. This process brings about a shift from the importance of centrality, towards the fertility of the edge and allows edges, fragments and gaps to become ways of thinking about territoriality. The agency is less interested in the generic “centre” or “zone”, but instead focused on the junctures and intersections of situation. This is used to define more than simply the urban planning of the city.
35
Situation & Program
Design Report
38
Filo Fragment Fictions
As a means of re-appropriating fragments of the
city’s
disused
architectural within
a
coastline,
intervention
derelict
shipping
the
primary
takes
place
scrapyard
–
a site discarded by tourism as a space of detritus, its landscape, program and content acts as a trace of the area’s now discharged industry. This agency becomes concerned with the making specific of otherwise generic urban practices through a process of testing and drawing specific logics of edge found within. A specific result of the generic condition, the scrapyard is thus treated as an expression of the palimpsest city.
39
Design Report
[
]
Situation: Isola Bianca’s Fragmented Landscape in-SITU.
40
Filo Fragment Fictions
[ [
]
]
PARA-Situation: Reading(s) of Isola Bianca’s Fragmented Landscape is transposed throughout the Olbian coastline.
41
Design Report
As the architectural language is tested and played
out
departure
on
site,
becomes
the
the
previous
point
of
point
entry
of
into
the new site condition. Architecture becomes the embodiment of a process that begins to unpack the landscape’s fragmentation, seeking to understand the complexities and details of conceptualizing the city as a palimpsest.
42
Filo Fragment Fictions
43
Design Report
[ ]
[ 44
]
[
]
]
Filo Fragment Fictions
“On the fragmented territory of “fictional” landscapes, however, “other” landscapes crop up with strong social dynamics, spaces where different dimensions coexist. The loss of hegemony of the dense city in relation to the production of meaningful urban experiences permits reflection on less investigated territories, such as low-density settlement landscapes, which foster new tendencies in architectural culture.” (The Urban Potential of External Territories 2011)
45
Design Report
Scrapyard.
Isola Bianca.
Resort.
Scrapyard.
Isola Bianca.
1:200
Landscapes.
1:5000 & 1:200.
Filo Fragment Fictions.
J. Kinghorn & L. Butler.
Boats and Edges become scaling devices used in the extrapolation of Isola Bianca’s Fragmented Tectonic.
46
Filo Fragment Fictions
Scrapyard.
Isola Bianca.
Resort.
Resort.
1:200
Landscapes.
1:5000 & 1:200.
Filo Fragment Fictions.
J. Kinghorn & L. Butler.
1:200
Landscapes.
1:5000 & 1:200.
Filo Fragment Fictions.
J. Kinghorn & L. Butler.
47
Design Report
situation
48
Filo Fragment Fictions
PARA-situation
49
Design Report
at
4_Bo
g0 awin
Dr
50
y
adem
s Ac
der’
Buil
Filo Fragment Fictions
The architectural language used to make virtue of an understanding of edgeworks
and
delaminating
urban
layers. This language is concerned with, and comprised of, a gradation of weights and durabilities: with a range of corrosion paces occurring
1.Material exists as components/fragments and as separate.
2. Through human manipulation, materials take on own (inSITU) character, becoming thicker.
3. Materials begin to form relationships between each other and take on different paces- new DNA is formed
5. Product/refining
4. Material input
1.Material relationships
1.Material input
2.Material thickness
in parallel.
4. Details stitched into process.
5. Pace slows to careful rhythm of 'finishing' the product.
PARA-Site.
Boat-making process_ various scales.
Rust. Object.
Surface.
Trace.
Histories.
Container.
51
Design Report
52
Filo Fragment Fictions
Stills from Animation process: Delaminating, Fragmenting and Exploding Figure, Landscape and Building.
53
Design Report
Tectonic Processes: The Drawing Process yeilding a productive dialogue.
54
Filo Fragment Fictions
55
Design Report
Testing Figure-to-Ground/Water Conditions. Drawings: Manipulation and working of edge condition contains its own architecture, and accomodates that of the building program. Models: The architecture is tested as intrinsic nature of casting engages the edge, specifically designing - through models - the formwork that shapes the groundwork, that then houses figure (all of which are considered architecture) ultimately allows careful consideration of each, both individually and simultaneously. 56
Filo Fragment Fictions
57
Design Report
58
Filo Fragment Fictions
Operating on the Edge: Off-shore building components extend the architectural territory into the bay.
59
Design Report
Edge.
Retainment. Testing.
Ground.
60
Filo Fragment Fictions
Figure to Ground/Water Conditions Apparatus for Drawing Rust at 1:1 and 1:500.
61
Design Report
01. 02.
03.
The Language of Construction & Construction of Language Understanding Figure/Ground at 1:500.
62
Filo Fragment Fictions
63
Trace.
Histories.
rust.
Container.
goods transhipment.
Surface.
64
metal upcycling.
Object.
teaching.
Design Report
1.Material exists as components/fragments and as separate.
2. Through human manipulation, materials take on own (inSITU) character, becoming thicker.
3. Materials begin to form relationships between each other and take on different paces- new DNA is formed
4. Details stitched into process.
Boat-making process_ various scales.
5. Pace slows to careful rhythm of 'finishing' the product.
boat building.
Filo Fragment Fictions
1.Material input
2.Material thickness
1.Material relationships
4. Material input
5. Product/refining
65
Design Report
Ground Floor.
66
First Floor.
Filo Fragment Fictions
Jetty & Dry-Dock.
Club House & Platform.
67
Design Report
Yacht
warehouses,
non-situated
symptoms
of
the
tourist-driven economy of the city, are understood as conditions of the economic situation of Olbia [passive
population
attitudes
they
against
this
of
tourists]
generate.
paradigm
and
Architectural
sees
the
the
urban
resistance
development
of
a
hybridised program, situated in both corporeal and incorporeal species, seeking to become inherently of situ – in this instance, facilitating both the city’s existing,
but
currently
un-situated
rowing
club;
with a training facility, specifying in craft and a practice: building, testing and rowing boats.
68
Filo Fragment Fictions
69
Design Report
Pier as Extension of Building Territory into the Bay.
70
Filo Fragment Fictions
71
S5
S4
B1
B2
A
[J]
B3
B5
B
B4
[P]
Design Report
72
F
Filo Fragment Fictions
B6
[L]
B
[L]
B7
[L]
BW
B7
A
A
S2
B
[Y]
B1 Jig Making B3 Assembly B4 Fibreglass / Paint B5 Finishing / Testing B6 Boat Store
S1
B7 Trophy Room S1 Yacht Breaking S2 Scrapper’s Cabin S4 Material Store S5 Scrapyard C1 Rowing Club C2 Bar C3 Toilet C4 Recreation
Ground Floor Plan 1:200
C5 Rowers’ Gymnasium C6 Changing Facilities
Ground Floor Plan 1:500 [Originally drawn at 1:200]
73
Design Report
74
Filo Fragment Fictions
75
D
E
C
S3
A
76 C1
C5
B
C6
C3
E
D
C
Design Report
Filo Fragment Fictions
G
F
[L]
B
C2
B7
A
C4
A
G
B
B1 Jig Making B3 Assembly B4 Fibreglass / Paint B5 Finishing / Testing B6 Boat Store B7 Trophy Room S1 Yacht Breaking S2 Scrapper’s Cabin S4 Material Store S5 Scrapyard C1 Rowing Club C2 Bar C3 Toilet C4 Recreation
F
Ground Floor Plan 1:200
C5 Rowers’ Gymnasium C6 Changing Facilities
First Floor Plan 1:500 [Originally drawn at 1:200]
77
Design Report
78
Filo Fragment Fictions
Above - Tectonic Composition Below - Technical Specification Sections 1:500 [Originally drawn at 1:100] 79
Design Report
80
Filo Fragment Fictions
Roof Plan 1:500 [Originally drawn at 1:200]
81
Design Report
82
Filo Fragment Fictions
Situating Program: Rowing Club Launch Deck aligns with the path of the Breaking Facility’s yacht store. PARA-Situations aligned.
83
Design Report
84
Filo Fragment Fictions
The Corrosive Facade: Architecture takes on a pattern of place over time, as in-situ processes occur.
85
Design Report
1.
86
2.
3.
4.
Filo Fragment Fictions
Language of Corrosion.
87
Design Report
88
Filo Fragment Fictions
The Occupation of Edge: Tectonic Conditions of Weight and Durability.
89
Design Report
90
Filo Fragment Fictions
91
Design Report
Texture & Façade: Merging & Weathering through specific material tectonic. Specificity of architecture in-SITU is explored by allowing material construction of the building in elevation to adopt and
develop
the
material
language
of
the site: a slow-rusting façade allows the building simultaneously augment the ground-figure relationship, whilst acting as a register of time. Rust evokes the language of the fragmenting palimpsest.
92
Filo Fragment Fictions
93
Design Report
Delaminations and Layering Processes become part of teh modelled language of the project: thicks composed of multiple thins, heavy and light, durable and temporal.
94
Filo Fragment Fictions
Cross Sections 1:500 [Originally drawn at 1:200]
95
Working Drawings Package
Design Report
The exploded axonometric shows firstly how each of these packages are poised within the building, and secondly the way each of the building’s tectonics and/or programs becomes part of one/ both of these by occupying an edge or holding skin in a specific way. It shows ground, figure, program, frame and skin as ways of understanding the gradation of weight - of which, ground and skin play the roles of durable and temporal.
98
Exploded Axonometric 1:1000 [Originally drawn at 1:200]
Filo Fragment Fictions
Construction Sequence Details 1:100 [Originally drawn at 1:10]
99
Design Report
Construction Phases
The groundworks will be carried out as the first phase of construction. construction
This of
phase
involves
specialist
land
underwater
excavation,
foundations,
the land/
water retaining walls and general foundation placement. The groundworks
stage
of
construction
will
involve
extensive
piling around the site and in-situ casting of concrete. Before work begins, a full geophysical survey should be undertaken to establish the state of the ground. Due to the site being located in the industrial area of olbia, construction noise and disturbance of local residents should not be an issue. A reinforced concrete volume takes form is the second phase. The third phase sees the erection of the steel frame used to fix the corten panels.
Ground-works: Edge manipulation.
100
Figure-works: Infrastructures.
Filo Fragment Fictions
Ground Works
The Ground Works working drawings package deals with edge, specifically
the
manipulation,
and
eventual
occupation
of
urban edges as durable architectural components. Technical specificities
of
this
are
explored,
as
construction
on
a
waterfront edge requires specific construction methods and retaining walls. It also deals with a set of foundation types - regular pad foundations, water retaining walls built as pile caps and underwater foundations.
Frame-works: Spatial Delineation.
SKin-works: Weathering Tectonic.
101
Design Report
Utilising the manipulated edge of the territory further, the building’s cooling system taps into the cold water and uses its temperature to cool a loop of fresh water (because salt water cannot be used throughout the building as it corrodes pipes) which circulates the building’s floor panels, maintaining a regular flow of air, thus simultaneously cooling and naturally ventilating the building.
102
Filo Fragment Fictions
Quantity & Measure ‘Enclosed volume’ Ground floor: Perim: 172 m, Area: 744 sq. m, Max height 4m ‘Enclosed volume’ First floor: Perim: 189 m, Area: 490 sq. m, max height 4m Total volume: 2976 + 1960 = 4936 m3 Total exterior wall area (inc. fenestration): 1444 sq. m Total Cladding area (inc. fenestration): 2496 sq. m Water Retention – 1171 sq. m x 5 m depth = 5855 m3
Excavation and Retention Calculations Ramp and Dock: Land and Edge. Ramp 3.125 m2 width x Area of section 67.731 m2 = Total excavation volume 211.66 m2 Concrete used = area of specified section 16.477 m2 x 3.125 width = Total volume of concrete to form ramp 51.49 m3 From excavation, area of wall required to retain remaining ground = 53.88 m2 x 2 walls = 107.76 m2 Dock 7.379 m at deepest excavated point x 971 m2 area = 7165.01 m3 approx. volume 138m length of retaining wall 43m of which is 3.7m deep = 159.1m2 area of retaining wall 95m of which is 7.4m deep = 703 m2 area of retaining wall Area of dock retaining wall = 862.1 m2 Total area of retaining wall required = 107.76 + 862.2 m2
103
Design Report
Trophy Room & Pier Foundation Detail [Originally drawn at 1:10]
104
Filo Fragment Fictions
Construction Procedure Diagram: installing underwater foundations.
105
Design Report
The ramped entrance to the building requires specific drainage system – which is designed to accompany the sewage outflow. Concrete retaining walls are an extension of the manipulated edge condition of the industrial waterfront, and provide space for guttering. Concrete is specified to accept the rusted water from the cladding panels.
106
Filo Fragment Fictions
CLADDING DETAIL 1:10
Frame Works
The Frame Works drawing package deals with that which holds
others
in
place.
The
mediation
between
Figure
and Skin, the Frame works package outlines the various grades of structure used. Conceptually, Framing entails a holding or structuring of the architectural project, as well as an evaluation or re-framing of the architectural thesis. Re-framing entails a commitment to the re-working of the project: the drawing plays a key role in the ongoing self-evaluation. CLADDING DETAIL 1:10
Cladding Structure Detail 1:20 [Originally drawn at 1:10] 107
Design Report
Skin Works
Skin Works package deals with the lightest and least durable of the building tectonic, it is the fastest moving and therefore most readily replaced - requiring a timescaled schedule of replacement. Building maintenance should remain regular, with various architectural elements weathering at different paces: most notably of which is the corten steel façade paneling, which is designed to erode and eventually decay in certain places, until replacement is necessary. This process takes varying amounts of time according to adjacency to water, particularly – as in this case - salt water. Maintenance of this is an ongoing process designed into the detailing of the frame/skin interface (see Skin Works Package) whereby panels are detailed for straightforward removability/replacement. No toxins or dangerous chemicals are released in the erosion process, however it is best practice to use safety gloves when handling rusted metal.
Secondary Frame acts as a mediator between prinary structure and tertiary frame (and skin), expressed through programmed space.
Program (circulation) operates within the gradations of frame, skin and solid.
Cladding is designed to erode specifically according to position within the building: architecture takes on a pattern of place. This requires a schedule of replacement.
Tertiary Frame retains the position of cladding panels whilst allowing ease of replacement.
108
Filo Fragment Fictions
Ground Works are an expression of the anchorage/receiving/retainment of the architectural ground/figure relationship.
Solids and voids express the vaious weightings of the package; whilst also speaking of the paces inherent of each.
109
Design Report
110
Filo Fragment Fictions
Exploded Axonometric Detail 1:50 [Originally drawn at 1:20]
Configuring Delaminated Edge Conditions: Detail as site, site as detail.
111
Design Report
Crafting the Edge: Treatment of Program and Situation
112
Filo Fragment Fictions
Boat Builder’s Academy with boat-stripping facilities, workshop and rowing club; located on a derelict scrapyard at the watersedge within the city’s industrial area. Program is also a delamination of object (layers of yachts, fiberglass etc.) aligned with the construction of its PARA - the rowing boat. The reciprocal relation between figure and ground both describes and spawns architecture. The boat builder’s workshop is the apparatus used to craft PARA, both physically [crafting of boats as a renewable economy] and conceptually [the PARA-situation as another layer of narrative].
113
Design Report
114
Filo Fragment Fictions
By this stage, the thesis has set up an emerging narrative
that
carries
through
the
exhibition,
project and program, existing between processes of layered additions and delaminations. As opposed to conceiving of the exercise on Isola Bianca as “deconstructed” or “exploded” it is rather more poignant to of conceive it - along with the city - as delaminated. The package of working drawings exists within this flux: the details and tectonic axonometrics show a coming together of pieces, their counterpart (the schedule) is their delamination. The structures of the packages are Skin Works, Frame-works and Ground Works - effective ways of expressing thinness and thickness (sometimes made of thins) - the details pertain specifically to both, and the architectural figure (which both are part of) does all the work.
115
Now the project is extrapolated across the metropolitan landscape, projecting change and ultimately forming a series across a set of specific enzymatic territories – whereby the scrapyard located on the shore of the industrial zone (conceived as an archive of consumer-led industrial detritus) is a specific edge condition. Two of these edge conditions [conditions of both architecture and situation] are picked up and elaborated.
S.E.T
The schedule becomes a critical document in this process, its structures [Ground, Skin, Frame, Tectonic] are delaminated and the individual logics used to introduce an architectonic that invokes changes to the existing urban and economic paradigms, giving
new
ways
of
conceiving
Edgeworks.
The
collective
territoriality of these agencies act as incremental changes to the existing landscape, coordinated in such a way as to hold the potential for perpetual extrapolation across the landscape – with each process yielding its own individual tectonic, as well as acting within the connectivity of the architectonic language. As the project is enacted through characters/commentators on the tense relations of temporality and endurance, it is documented as fragments, or Diaries – ways of drawing the metropolitan landscape. Their architectures become a product of the ongoing commitment to drawing: as discusses at the outset, the Cartographer’s role is of one who draws, who invokes the synonyms of “drawing”, through which collective processes are enacted.
Design Report
120
Cartographer
Instauratio [Ruins, Renaissance, Authentic, Fragmentation]
Caretaker
Choragraphic [Specificity, Performativity]
Corrosion Inspector
Mirabilia [Wonders, Monuments]
Retired Fisherman
Paradigmatic [Para-Situation, Beside, Ab-Use]
Tourist
Cadastral [Allotment, Re-Allotment, Proportion]
Filo Fragment Fictions
Aligning the Series of Enzymatic Territories
121
SYS Yachts
Design Report
Genova - Olbia
Parc Nazionale dell’Arcipelago di La Maddalena
Livoma - Olbia
Cannigione Boat Center
Bocche Di Bonifacio Yachting
Fiumicino - Golfo Aranci
Osservatorio di Capo Figari
Golfo Aranci - Livorno
Civitavecchia - Golfo Aranci
Civitavecchia - Olbia
Piombino - Olbia
Olbia - Salerno
Tecno Service Marine Snc Di Livio
SNO Yachts Nautica di Puntaldia
Euroyachts
Cantiere Nautico Cavallin
SNO Yachts
Nausika SRL
SYS Yachts
Porto Isola Bianca
Faro dell'isola della Bocca
Marina di Olbia
Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport
Hospital San Raffaele
Area Marina Protetta Tavolara Punta Coda Cavallo
Venafiorita Airport
122
Filo Fragment Fictions
Livoma - Olbia
Piombino - Olbia
Civitavecchia - Olbia
Olbia - Salerno
S.E.T Scale Player out at the Gallura Scale: Metropolitan Landscape of Edge Conditions. Lighthouse.
Observatory, Radio Tower & Mine.
1:2000.
1:2000.
Lighthouse.
1:5000.
123
Design Report
Exrtact from Caretaker’s Diary
Extract from Caretaker’s Diary
124
Extract from Caretaker’s Diary
February 24th
February 24th
7.22am
7.22am
The wake of a passing boat slowly reaches the island, crashing against the rocks, awakening me. It is almost certainly a cargo boat – a reminder of the
The wake of a passing boat slowly reaches the island, crashing against the rocks, awakening me. It is almost certainly a cargo boat – a reminder of the
scale and magnitude that act as a constant register of the treatment of landscape in and around the city, spaces where “local” means nothing. At this time of year it is particularly clear.
scale and magnitude that act as a constant register of the treatment of landscape in and around the city, spaces where “local” means nothing. At this time of year it is particularly clear.
8:04am
8:04am
The inconsequential tidal movement there is will be prevailing inward, making the boat that little easier
The inconsequential tidal movement there is will be prevailing inward, making the boat that little easier
to moor at each stop. As I unwillingly clamber up the stairs, the harsh extruded metal panels catch the cold sea wind. 21 steps. A raised space, erupting from the ground, serves my need for a vantage point: from here I can see all but one of my routine
to moor at each stop. As I unwillingly clamber up the stairs, the harsh extruded metal panels catch the cold sea wind. 21 steps. A raised space, erupting from the ground, serves my need for a vantage point: from here I can see all but one of my routine
destinations - that damn lighthouse obstructs my view of Figarola.
destinations - that damn lighthouse obstructs my view of Figarola.
5:47pm
5:47pm
The sun will be setting soon. I respite from my
The sun will be setting soon. I respite from my
walk the along the slow, upward-sloped path towards the lighthouse - about two thirds of the way up stopping to catch look over the bay. Almost peaceful.
walk the along the slow, upward-sloped path towards the lighthouse - about two thirds of the way up stopping to catch look over the bay. Almost peaceful.
From the operating station, I hear the creaking of metal slowly moving against itself as a consequence of the waves. I laugh - at least I can find irony in
From the operating station, I hear the creaking of metal slowly moving against itself as a consequence of the waves. I laugh - at least I can find irony in
the way the basin controls this apparatus.
the way the basin controls this apparatus.
“Let there be light.” – though in this instance, a warning. Illumination nonetheless. The vast, empty territory of the lighthouse mimics the landscape: my
“Let there be light.” – though in this instance, a warning. Illumination nonetheless. The vast, empty territory of the lighthouse mimics the landscape: my
only refuge is the small fragments of intensity.
only refuge is the small fragments of intensity.
At the top of the tower, I smoke and look over the city. From here I can watch the sun set over the
At the top of the tower, I smoke and look over the city. From here I can watch the sun set over the
mountains. Looking up at the sky, one can sometimes see the light trail of a distant airplane – the few planes that arrive at this time of year serve to forewarn of the traffic to come. The city is set to
mountains. Looking up at the sky, one can sometimes see the light trail of a distant airplane – the few planes that arrive at this time of year serve to forewarn of the traffic to come. The city is set to
become Mr Hyde again. A very different place indeed.
become Mr Hyde again. A very different place indeed.
Though, Dr Jekyll is equally to blame: a final thought as I retire for the night.
Though, Dr Jekyll is equally to blame: a final thought as I retire for the night.
Guide’s Agenda
Guide’s Agency Extract from Caretaker’s Diary
Guide’s Agency Extract from Caretaker’s Diary
February 24th 7.22am The wake of a passing boat slowly reaches the island, crashing against the rocks, awakening me. It is almost certainly a cargo boat – a reminder of the scale and magnitude that act as a constant register of the treatment of landscape in and around the city, spaces where “local” means nothing. At this time of year it is particularly clear.
8:04am The inconsequential tidal movement there is will be prevailing inward, making the boat that little easier to moor at each stop. As I unwillingly clamber up the stairs, the harsh extruded metal panels catch the cold sea wind. 21 steps. A raised space, erupting from the ground, serves my need for a vantage point: from here I can see all but one of my routine destinations - that damn lighthouse obstructs my view of Figarola.
5:47pm The sun will be setting soon. I respite from my walk the along the slow, upward-sloped path towards the lighthouse - about two thirds of the way up stopping to catch look over the bay. Almost peaceful. From the operating station, I hear the creaking of metal slowly moving against itself as a consequence of the waves. I laugh - at least I can find irony in the way the basin controls this apparatus.
“Let there be light.” – though in this instance, a warning. Illumination nonetheless. The vast, empty territory of the lighthouse mimics the landscape: my only refuge is the small fragments of intensity. At the top of the tower, I smoke and look over the city. From here I can watch the sun set over the mountains. Looking up at the sky, one can sometimes see the light trail of a distant airplane – the few planes that arrive at this time of year serve to forewarn of the traffic to come. The city is set to become Mr Hyde again. A very different place indeed.
Though, Dr Jekyll is equally to blame: a final thought as I retire for the night.
Cartographer’s Landscape Guide’s Agency
February 24th 7.22am The wake of a passing boat slowly reaches the island, crashing against the rocks, awakening me. It is almost certainly a cargo boat – a reminder of the scale and magnitude that act as a constant register of the treatment of landscape in and around the city, spaces where “local” means nothing. At this time of year it is particularly clear.
8:04am The inconsequential tidal movement there is will be prevailing inward, making the boat that little easier to moor at each stop. As I unwillingly clamber up the stairs, the harsh extruded metal panels catch the cold sea wind. 21 steps. A raised space, erupting from the ground, serves my need for a vantage point: from here I can see all but one of my routine destinations - that damn lighthouse obstructs my view of Figarola.
5:47pm The sun will be setting soon. I respite from my walk the along the slow, upward-sloped path towards the lighthouse - about two thirds of the way up stopping to catch look over the bay. Almost peaceful. From the operating station, I hear the creaking of metal slowly moving against itself as a consequence of the waves. I laugh - at least I can find irony in the way the basin controls this apparatus.
“Let there be light.” – though in this instance, a warning. Illumination nonetheless. The vast, empty territory of the lighthouse mimics the landscape: my only refuge is the small fragments of intensity. At the top of the tower, I smoke and look over the city. From here I can watch the sun set over the mountains. Looking up at the sky, one can sometimes see the light trail of a distant airplane – the few planes that arrive at this time of year serve to forewarn of the traffic to come. The city is set to become Mr Hyde again. A very different place indeed.
Though, Dr Jekyll is equally to blame: a final thought as I retire for the night.
Cartographer’s Landscape
Cartographer’s Landscape Guide’s Agency
Inspecting Metropolitan Corrosions and Endurances Cartographer’s Landscape
Inspecting Cartographer’s Metropolitan Corrosions Landscapeand Endurances
Inspecting Metropolitan Corrosions and Endurances
Inspecting Metropolitan Corrosions and Endurances
Inspecting Metropolitan Corrosions and Endurances
Filo Fragment Fictions
S.E.T Scale Player out at the Studio Scale: Filo Fragment Fictions.
125
Design Report
D03_Schedule.
L02_PARA-Site.
Boat
L02_
D02_
Forg
otte
n Te
y.
adem
s Ac
der’
Buil
rrit
ory.
D02_Isola
L01_
Hous
126
_Fictions.
e fo
r Ca
rtog
raph
y.
Bianca’s
Fragmented
Tectonic.
Filo Fragment Fictions
1:1_PROJECTION_FILM
Enzymatic Territory [a] Isola Figarola & Osservatorio di Capo Ficari
1:2000.
PA
RA
-S
it
ua
ti
on
.
127 Enzymatic Territory [b] Faro dell’Isola della Bocca
1:2000.
Design Report
128
Filo Fragment Fictions
Curating S.E.T Scale(s)
129
Design Report
Edgeworks: Caretaker
Lighthouse and Port Station
130
Filo Fragment Fictions
131
Design Report
The Caretaker provides a means of thinking about
fragmentation
and
a
collectivity
of
pieces simultaneously. The caretaker traverses the edge(s) of Olbia, mimicking the lighthouse with which his architecture sits in para as an agent of filo. The role of the Care Taker is to define the limits of the projected territory, acting in such a way as to specifically [and care-fully] mediate and
between
architectural
the
Metropolitan
tectonic.
The
Landscape
Caretaker’s
actions are of a specificity of place, closely linked to the idea of anchorage and thickness richness of place, histories, landscapes.
132
Filo Fragment Fictions
Extract from the Caretaker’s Diary.
February 24th The wake of a passing boat slowly reaches the island, crashing against the rocks, awakening me. It is almost certainly a cargo barge – a reminder of the scale and magnitude that act as a constant register of the treatment of landscape in and around the city, spaces where “local” means nothing. At this time of year it is particularly clear. Its 8:04am – the slight tide there is will be moving inward, making the boat that little easier to moor at each stop. As I unwillingly clamber up the stairs, the harsh extruded metal panels catch the cold sea wind. 18 steps. A raised space, erupting from the ground, serves my need for a vantage point: from here I can see all but one of my routine destinations - that damn lighthouse obstructs the view to Figarola.
133
Design Report
134
Filo Fragment Fictions
Its 5:47pm and the sun will be setting soon. I respite from my walk the along the slow, upwardsloped path towards the lighthouse - about two thirds of the way up - stopping to catch look over the bay. Almost peaceful. From the operating station, I hear the creaking of metal slowly moving against itself as a consequence of the waves. This makes me chuckle - at least I can find irony in the way the basin controls this apparatus. “Let there be light.” – though in this instance, a warning. Illumination nonetheless. The vast, empty territory of the lighthouse mimics the landscape: my only refuge is the small fragments of intensity.
135
Design Report
136
Filo Fragment Fictions
137
Design Report
138
Filo Fragment Fictions
139
Design Report
140
Filo Fragment Fictions
141
Design Report
142
Filo Fragment Fictions
At the top of the tower, I smoke and look over the city. From here I can watch the sun set over the mountains. Looking up at the sky, one can sometimes see the light trail of a distant airplane – the few planes that arrive at this time of year serve to forewarn of the traffic to come. The city is set to become Mr Hyde again. A very different place indeed. Though, Dr Jekyll is equally to blame. I retire for the night.
143
Design Report
144
Filo Fragment Fictions
145
Design Report
Edgeworks: Guide & Fisherman Temporary Residences
146
Filo Fragment Fictions
147
Design Report
The
Retired
Fisherman
is
a
character
of
mediation and flux, becoming the apparatus through
which
“veneer”
is
fragmented.
Like the other narrators, the Ex-Fisherman navigates a territory between the durable and temporal, but is also able to transcend these scales due to his occupational history. Now operating on several scales as a ‘guide’ and agent of ‘Pescatourismo’, the fisherman, has the ability to relate to and criticise the viewpoints of the other narrators. The visitor
embodies
a
superficial
position
on landscape that the tourist economy has established. Through the guide’s perspective, the SET scale is traversed- the guide is, therefore, the most suitable representative in
the
revelation
simultaneously
of
thesis.
collapses
and
The
guide
delaminates
thesis, he has traversed the gulf countless times, marking the palimpsest substantially. Adopting an almost lighthearted approach to the conditions within Olbia, the fisherman occupies the Edge between tourist and local.
148
Filo Fragment Fictions
149
Design Report
A ‘temporary’ residence, a register of this edge, emerges from within the territory of the fisherman. The fisherman’s ‘permanence’ is undermined by the fact that nothing can ever exist this way; the durability expressed in the tectonic becomes just as temporary as that of the tourists who come and go.
150
Filo Fragment Fictions
151
Design Report
152
Filo Fragment Fictions
153
Design Report
Tecno Service Marine Snc Di Livio
SNO Yachts Nautica di Puntaldia
Euroyachts
Cantiere Nautico Cavallin
SNO Yachts
Nausika SRL
SYS Yachts
Porto Isola Bianca
Marina di Olbia
Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport
Hospital San Raffaele
154
Filo Fragment Fictions
S.E.T
Scale
is
played
out
across
both
the
landscape and the studio, bringing simultaneously a specificity of place and a generative otherness of studio project.
Faro dell'isola della Bocca
155
Design Report
156
Filo Fragment Fictions
Edge Model 1:1000 Metropolitan Edge holds the extrapolated 1:100, 1:200 & 1:2000 scale tectonic components.
157
Design Report
Edge 01: Ground Cut/Ramp Entrance and Workshop.
[J]
B2
S5 B1
158
Filo Fragment Fictions
159
B2 Design Report
B3
B1
Edge 02: Boat Workshop and Rowing Gym - PARA Programs.
B4
S4
[P]
B5
160
S2
Filo Fragment Fictions
161
S2 Design Report
BW
S1
[L] Edge 03: Pier - Boat Launching Area with Rowing Boat Storage.
[Y]
B6
162
Filo Fragment Fictions
163
[L] Design Report
Edge 04: Trophy Room.
B7
A
164
B
Filo Fragment Fictions
165
Design Report
Studio Edge Coordination. 1:1000 Landscape 1:100 Building 1:10 Tectonic Experiments
166
Diagramatic Edge Conditions.
Filo Fragment Fictions
167
Design Report
Exhibition of Fragmentation, Revelations and Edges; Situations, Fictions and Cartographies.
168
Filo Fragment Fictions
169
Film
The film Set is the studio. By allowing this Set of Enzymatic Territories to be enacted in studio situation allows the views insight into the process: namely, that ultimately, amongst the conceptual, physical and diagrammatic layering
of
the
city
and
studio
alike,
there
exists
an
unrelenting
commitment to the process of drawing landscape at various different scales, from the scale of the body through building, series of territories, to the metropolitan landscape scale. PARA-Situation: Studio becomes the final platform for fragment fictions: exhibition 2013
Design Report
172
Filo Fragment Fictions
173
Design Report
Film
The film Set is the studio. By allowing this Set of Enzymatic Territories to be enacted in studio situation allows the views insight into the process: namely, that ultimately, amongst the conceptual, physical and diagrammatic layering of the city and studio alike, there exists an unrelenting commitment to the process of drawing landscape at various different scales, from the scale of the body through building, series
of
territories,
to
the
metropolitan
landscape scale. The
Tourist
Visitor’s
narrative
becomes
the
Set. The tourist embodies a superficial position on landscape that the tourist economy has set up; the other project narrators are a critique of that. Thus the visitor assumes the role of the tourist purely by entering the room afresh. The exhibition visitor is a para-situation to the
city
and
exhibition
alike:
the
project
urges both characters to see the durable, to understand a deeper meaning, to break through a veneer and appreciate the Loving Metropolitan Landscape. PARA-Situation: Studio becomes the final platform for fragment fictions: exhibition 2013
174
Filo Fragment Fictions
175
Epilogue Three devices drive the drawing process. Three containers of edge have allowed us to explore the complex relations of a city that perhaps has not been drawn readily enough, with a landscape that certainly has not. Initially conceived as a deconstructive process, the thesis quickly became about building – as both noun and adjective – as relations of temporality and endurance are drawn through the architecture. Likewise architecture is drawn by relations of temporality and endurance. The drawing of architectural language has proven the most testing, yet fruitful, of endeavors, as tectonic of situ drives the impetus of the project. Often, the process used small tectonic studies – small test buildings – to simply discover or draw out the next move. Hence, the project becomes a chronology of thought, process and most importantly drawings. As the objects and subjects of the thesis align, one can’t help but enjoy the openendedness as a project between two students with (although different ideas and preferences) a shared commitment to drawing; has yielded a project concerning a plurality of characters, each narrating a different story under a shared perpetual condition understood entirely through drawing. Back to the drawing board always is the next step.
Appendices
There are three appendices to this report, each relevant in its own instance, however each presented a significant break from the narrative of the report, and thus were deemed inappropriate to be contained within the main body of work. Appendix 1: Environment & Technology Strategies - Costing, Access, Maintenance, Safety, Fire, Thermal, Noise. Appendix 2: Architectural Theory Essay Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Ontological Hermeneutics or Derrida & Deconstruction: Hermeneutics and the Design Studio. Appendix 3: Report Bibliography
Appendix 1 Architectural Management, Practice and Law.
Design Report
1. The ramped entrance to the building requires specific drainage system – which is designed to accompany the sewage outflow. Concrete retaining walls are an extension of the manipulated edge condition of the industrial waterfront. 2. Roof pitch can be designed to allow natural light to pass into the building (6) and rain water to flow down into guttering system. The cladding panels play a role in this water flow, and are allowed to erode. 3. The spray booth not only requires specific conditioning, but also an outlet of fumigated air: a chimney system may be one of the only options given the space’s position in the building.
3.
2.
4. Electricity supply can either be mains or selfsupporting: either photovoltaic panels or hydroelectric power from the bay can be used in the latter. 5. Changing rooms require running water – it is advised that the toilet water could be a separate system from the showers: grey water for the toilet, and fresh water pumped in from mains in the showers.
1.
5.
182
4.
Filo Fragment Fictions
7.
6.
8.
9.
10.
11.
7. Temperature fluctuation is normally kept to a minimum artificially through conditioning systems, however concrete’s thermal mass (10) can be used in accompany with and louver systems (11) to maintain a comfortable flux of highs and lows in temperature.
183
Design Report
12.
13.
14.
12. Utilising the manipulated edge of the territory further, the building’s cooling system taps into the cold water and uses its temperature to cool a loop of fresh water (because salt water cannot be used throughout the building as it corrodes pipes) which circulates the building’s floor panels, maintaining a regular flow of air, thus naturally ventilating the building.
184
13. An alternative form of chimney system that can be used to ventilate the building using air pressure differential between inside and outside an enclosed space: stack effect. A small turbine is implemented to utilise the regular flow of air. 14. Shows a quick calculation to work out the basic dimension of the chimney.
Filo Fragment Fictions
15.
15. Such a high daylight factor of both the inside and outside for a generic building/flat site model opens the issue of naturally lit spaces within the building.
185
Design Report
Fire Safety
Economics and Costing
composed of steel and concrete and therefore, in terms
procurement,
The façade and primary structure of the building are of structure, would perform reasonably well in the case of a fire, in comparison to other building materials. In the event of a fire, occupants are prevented from using the main underground entrance to the building. Instead, egress is encouraged through fire doors to the edges of the main spaces within the building. The upper floor makes use of several stair cores as an escape route.
is
as
suited
this
to
allows
a
Traditional
more
design
form
of
flexibility.
Design and build procurement would not be appropriate due to the specialist nature of the site, complex form and
particular
finishes
of
the
building.
Specialist
building elements and constructions are required such as the façade, the entry ramp and the pier. These factors stress a need for continued collaboration between the architect, contractor and client, which is less possible
Between Private, Public and Workplace Space calculations:
Location within the industrial area of olbia limits, eliminates,
construction
building
under a Design and Build Contract.
Planning even
The
the
process
impact will
on
have.
local
residents
Despite
this,
the
there
still must be some form of local consultation requiring a detailed planning application be sent to the Comune di Olbia. The building has a strong case as it will establish a previously absent social program to the Olbian coastline.
‘Enclosed volume’ Ground floor: Perim: 342 m, Area: 1607.4 sq. m, Max height 4m ‘Enclosed volume’ First floor: Perim: 331.9 m, Area: 1746.3 sq. m, max height 4m Total volume: 5625.9 + 6112.05 = 11737.95 m3 Total exterior wall area (inc. fenestration): 1197 + 1161.65 = 2358.65 sq. m The
gross
area
of
the
building
is
3353sqm-
this
information can be used to devise an estimated figure for the reinforced concrete construction. Assuming costs of €1,181.34/sqm the total cost would be around € 40,165,390 (£3.4 million). This very basic figure does not include the costing for the skin package, the cost of acquiring the site or the substantial amount of groundworks necessary before construction begins on the main concrete figure. A quantity surveyor should be employed to evaluate the construction cost more correctly. One
approach
prefabrication
towards of
restricting
concrete
building
the
costs
elements.
is This
prevents the need for expensive formwork construction and in-situ mixing required. The building will support the local economy if the construction process is to employ local subcontractors i.e. builders. These specialists will not be unfamiliar to the construction of largescale buildings, something familiar to Olbia.
186
Filo Fragment Fictions
[J]
B2
[J]
C
B2
B3
S5
C
C
C
D
D
E
E
F
F
G
G
B3
S5 B1
B1
D
B4
S4
D
C5
C5
C1
C1
B4
S4
S3
[P]
B5
[P]
E
S3
C6
E
C6
B5 C3 C4
S2
C4
S2
C2
S1
S1
[Y]
C3
BW
BW
[L]
[L]
F
F
C2
[Y] B6
[L]
B6
[L]
Fire Exit Route Fire Assembly Points Safe Route Safe Fire Assembly Zone
B7
G
B7
G
Emergency Serveices Access A
A
A
A
187 B
B
B
B
Design Report
Plant Room Servicing
Appropriation of services according to specific conditioning of space.
188
Filo Fragment Fictions
Noise
There are few instances within the building in
which
absolute
silence
is
desired,
however providing a degree of control to the users is good practice. The same door system used to control the intensity of ventilation in specific workshop areas will also provide a degree of noise control when used in combination with sound-insulated walls (see diagram) to achieve acoustic separation
between
workshop
spaces
and
more intimate spaces like the club house.
Accoustic Performance Controlling factory noises.
Sound insulation
189
Universal Access Despite
a
relatively
inaccessible
series
of
building
S4
B1
B2
[J]
B3
B4
Design Report
Use
The building’s program, poses many risks to the human
programs; the site, position and building are all accessed
body, as is the nature of any process related to physical
with ease by those with specific spatial and conditional
activity or the environment in general. Users are expected
requirements.
of
to respect health and safety rules, as rowing club members
regulation standard code of practice Construction (Design
will be expected and trusted to act accordingly within the
and Management) Regulations 2007 M.5.5.3, which outlines
environment to prevent any harm to themselves and others.
internal ramps must follow the general guidelines for ramp
The workshop aspect of the building program naturally
usage set out in M.2.2, which states that ramps with a
presents risks to the individual due to the nature of
going of 10m are allowed a maximum gradient of 1:20 (1 in
the work and machinery used in the process of making and
16m). The entrance and main circulation of the building
repairing boats. The scrapyard presents various hazards
are either on the same level or connected by shallow ramped
to the body in the form of sharp materials and potentially
routes, which can be navigated with ease. Lift access to the
toxic and corroding elements. The scrapyard and workshop
rowing club, coupled with circulation of no less than 1.8m
may not be accessed by non-staff members or those who
provides wheelchair users with the ability to access any
are not fully trained in health and safety. Staff must
space within the building, with handrails, in accordance
accept responsibility for their conduct in the workplace.
with M.2.4 of the standard building regulations, between
First Aid stations will be located in the building to aid
900mm and 1100mm from floor level.
effective treatment of any injury sustained in any of the
The
ramped
entrance
has
a
pitch
three programs. the launching area is of sufficient area and pitch as to allow relative ease of maneuverability getting in and out of the boat. Gym changing facilities and showers are catered for disabled users, on the same level as the gym.
190
S5
In the event of practical use (namely by a disabled rower),
[L]
BW
B5
B6
[P]
Filo Fragment Fictions
S1
[Y]
S2
Safety & Ventilation Systems. The primary safety concern within the building is the management of toxic fumes from the spray booth and fiberglass workshop. Sliding doors provide the opportunity for a controlled level of ventilation according to the use of these facilities, with an open level of air movement allowed when the spraying facility is not in use; and a closed, intensive level of air extraction employed when toxic fumes are present. The Architect’s Job Book states that Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 a client will be under a statutory duty to appoint a Construction Design and Management Co-Ordinator and a Principal Contractor. This individual may be the architect or external CDM. The CDM must ensure the client is aware of their responsibilities under the regulations.
191
S3
C5
Design Report
Thermal Performance
The building is cooled using Deep water cooling (DWCS), a process which makes use of the building’s close proximity to the Olbian basin, using the water body as a heat sink. Water at 4-10 degrees Celsius from deep areas is pumped through the one side of a heat exchanger. On the other side of the heat exchanger, cooled water is produced. As far as possible, the project will employ natural ventilation C
through the long section of the building, making use of its position on the edge of the water to allow natural passage of air through the building to create a stack-ventilation effect. Thermal mass of the concrete will absorb heat by day and release by night. However, due to the nature of work in the workshop creating a lot of heat and dust, supplementary mechanical ventilation is necessary, not only to cool, but extract fumes. Individual elements such as woodworking machinery within the main workshop will be connected to mechanical extraction ducts. In a few instances the work will be isolated to a sealed chamber or room with extraction facilities to prevent dirty air entering the rest of the building, for example, the fiber-glass D
application chambers.
192
E
C4
C1
C2
C6
C3
Filo Fragment Fictions
193
Appendix 2 Architectural Theory Essay. The continual and unrelenting drawing process requires a reader. Therefore the author, or architect of the drawing archive, must understand what it is to read: and engagement with subject is key. This essay is pertinent to the thesis, not as an interjection or parti diagram, but more of an alter-study: or PARA-Situation. It does not assume involvement within the thesis, but its inclusion within this report is design as to offer the reader further insight into the way in which we as the architects of this thesis, have framed its reception.
Design Report
Studies in Contemporary Architectural Theory
Jamie Kinghorn s0787024
Outline at least two theories of interpretation, and contrast the implications of each for your own work as an architect, designer or theorist.
________________________
Abstract. In April of 1981, Professor Philippe Forget organised a meeting between HansGeorg Gadamer and Jaques Derrida at the Goethe Institute, Paris - a meeting described as “an Auseinandersetzung: a confrontation of positions, out of which one could gain not only a greater understanding of each individual standpoint but also of the relationship between them”.1 This paper gives an account of the two theories on interpretation outlined by Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jaques Derrida, drawing reference from this meeting between to provide the starting point for the development of some comparative conclusions pertaining to the ongoing thesis project of the Architectural Design Studio.
1 Michelfelder, D. & Palmer, R. “Introduction” in Michelfelder, D. & Palmer, R. Dialogue and Deconstruction: The Gadamer-Derrida Encounter. (1989) Albany, NY: State University Press. p2.
196
Filo Fragment Fictions
Introduction. As architects, reading is fundamental to our world. It shapes the way in which we conceive and ultimately act upon the built environment. The untrained eye may observe only that which makes the magazine cover or gains media attention - both are ways of reading architecture, however these pragmatic and somewhat superficial issues are not what is important to those concerned with truth and meaning in architecture. Advocates of this attitude towards architecture take reading much more seriously. Crucially, an architecture that pertains to (either in uncovering, concealing or expressing) meaning must both accept this responsibility in doing so with rigour, and also demand an audience that is willing to do the same in engaging with the interpretive process. This paper can be understood as an example of such engagement. Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation (of meaning) a field of theoretical thought inherently concerned with understanding how we, as conscious beings, engage with and understand the world. Such understanding is to understand one another, which is ultimately a form of agreement – even if the agreement is simply a common understanding of the differences of two opposing arguments. In this light, a key discussion takes place between the apparent opposed positions of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jaques Derrida. This meeting not only marked the coming together of two key contemporary philosophical thinkers, but it also demonstrated through Derrida, that there is more to interpretation than Gadamer’s hermeneutics. In suggesting an alternative means of reading the way in which one communicates, Derrida outlines
his
conception
of
reading
not
as
the
pursuit
of
meaning
as
something found within a text – since, according to Derrida there cannot be a single truth or absolute authority of authorship – but rather plurality of meaning as pertaining to differential and deferential nature of text, and an interpretation that is not forward-projecting as in Gadamer, but rather focuses on the gaps and disjunctions in our horizons that take experience by surprise. Ultimately, this paper seeks to understand these two ways of reading, conceived
as
key
strands
of
interpretation
–
Gadamer’s
“philosophical
hermeneutics” and Derrida’s “deconstruction” - contrasting their inherent logics and projecting the resulting implications onto the thesis work underway within the Design Studio.
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Framing Hermeneutics. Firstly, in order to engage with Gadamer as a key thinker in contemporary hermeneutical theory, it is important to outline the theories which his thinking draws upon. Historically, hermeneutic tradition holds significance in the course of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, through methodological considerations of Biblical readings. However, for Gadamer, a key shift in hermeneutics, initiated by Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey in the early twentieth century, came to include the study of linguistic and non-linguistic expression and by extension, culture and existential being.2 Issues such as “How does one read?” extended to questions of “How does one communicate?” - engaging an awareness of both subject and meaning within hermeneutics. Schleiermacher, a key proponent of eighteenth century hermeneutic theory, explored the nature of understanding with regards to a universal component inherent
in
all
communication.
Through
Schleiermacher,
hermeneutics
takes its first steps out of the confines of a discourse solely regarding interpretation of sacred texts, towards a broader linguistic series of questions ultimately concerned with legitimacy and the communication of legitimate, objective meaning. His initial reaction to the lack of reflection and critical questioning in the Romanticism and transcendental philosophy of the seventeenth century, is important towards a broad understanding of hermeneutics.3 In seeking a unity of procedure, Schleiermacher was able to define a series of principles pertaining to a systematic means of achieving valid interpretation – thus conceiving of understanding as the goal of a universal procedure - something he calls “systematic hermeneutics”.4 In the 20th century, Martin Heidegger’s “philosophical hermeneutics” altered this trajectory of thought from interpretation of linguistic gestures (text and speech) to existential understanding – whereby understanding is considered something that is neither a means nor an outcome of knowing, but rather something we are.5 Informed by a close reading of Schleiermacher and Dilthey, Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927), often regarded as his masterwork, is key 2 Ramberg, B. & Gjesdal, K. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2009. Hermeneutics. (ed Zalta, E.) Found at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hermeneutics. 3 Bleicher, J. Contemporary Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics as Method, Philosophy and Critique. London: Routledge. 1980. p14 4 Gadamer, Hans-G. Philosophical Apprenticeships. Translation of Philosophische Lehrjahre (1977) by MIT Press. Baskerville: MIT Press. 1985. p25 5 Scott, C. E. & Sallis, J. Interrogating the Tradition: Hermeneutics and the History of Philosophy. New York: State University Press. 2000. p97
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Filo Fragment Fictions
to understanding the principles of his philosophical hermeneutics – which considered neither linguistic communication, nor a methodology to be found within the human sciences, but rather a hermeneutics that is inherent in the most fundamental conditions of man’s being. Advocates of this approach maintain that such texts cannot be understood through the same scientific methods as the natural sciences, and thus use arguments similar to those of anti-positivism. Moreover, they assert that such texts can be read as expressions of the experience of the author; and their interpretation will ultimately reveal something about the social context in which they were formed, more significantly providing the reader with a means to share the experiences of the author. The reciprocal relationship between text and context constitutes Heidegger’s hermeneutic circle - a reference to the circular relation between the whole and its constituent parts in any interpretive event - whereby one cannot understand the meaning of a part of a language event (for example, a word) until understanding the meaning of the whole; and by the same virtue, the inverse is true.6 In terms of understanding a text, this is an ongoing process, continuing beyond the relationship of word/sentence to sentence/paragraph, paragraph/passage and so on. According to Heidegger, understanding language constitutes an interplay between text and context. The part and the whole give meaning to one-another; ergo understanding is understood as circular.7 The fundamental problematic of modern hermeneutics, as it seems for Heidegger, lies within this notion of meaning wherein the meaningful component of human expression is recognised by a subject and transposed into his own system of values and meanings.8 Here, the problem is not simply the act of recognition and transposition of meaning (or a version of meaning), but rather the capacity to afford subjectively intended accounts of meaning to an objective process or methodology, given that they are also engaged by the interpreter’s own subjectivity.9
6 Snodgrass, A. & Coyne, R. (1997) Is Designing Hermeneutical? In Architectural Theory Review, Journal of the Department of Architecture, The University of Sydney, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp 65-97. 7 Idem. 8 Bleicher, J. Contemporary Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics as Method, Philosophy and Critique. London: Routledge. 1980. p2 9 Ibid. p4
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Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Ontological Hermeneutics. Where Gadamer is concerned, this hermeneutic problematic - as well as the aforementioned idea
of
agreement
–
converge
in
an
understanding
concerned
with
achieving
an
agreement with a subject about our shared world – a communication that takes the form of a dialogue resulting, for Gadamer, in the “fusion of horizons”.10 Through his alignment with Heidegger, and with Phenomenology, Gadamer can be identified as a proponent of philosophical hermeneutics - or, to follow Gallager’s (1992) outline “moderate hermeneutics”. His project, a rejection of objectivity, outlines that in any interpretative situation one arrives carrying expectation, or prejudice – without which one would not be capable of interpreting anything, as it is precisely such projections upon which one compares new experience.11 Experience is key to Gadamer’s position, which emerges as an unfolding of Heidegger’s problematic of Verstehen, or understanding, in his starting point is a critique of the romantic traditions of idealism.12 In contrast with Gadamer’s “moderate” hermeneutics - the notion that truth is only attainable by understanding one’s experience - is the conservative position that the purpose of all art, literature and architecture is to conserve and project meanings, and interpreting them involves the uncovering of truths, relying on the idea that such meaning is static.13 Truth and Method outlines Gadamer’s primary concern, which is to overcome the positivist attitude that one is capable of developing an objective understanding of the phenomena with which one is engaged.14 Thus, hermeneutics, for Gadamer, is no longer understood as a discourse on methods of “objective” understanding – as in Schleiermacher and Dilthey – but rather a means by which one engages with the world (be it a piece of text, work of art, or indeed a building) based on specific, individual prejudice, which he calls “effective history”.15 Furthermore, understanding itself is inherently laden with prejudice rooted in history, in the acceptance of certain historical methodologies based upon assumptions of both what is to be studied and how it is to be approached.16 Gadamer claims that experience
200
10 Bleicher, J. Contemporary Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics as Method, Philosophy and Critique. London: Routledge. 1980. p3 11 Coyne, R. (2011) Derrida and Radical Practice. In Coyne, R. Derrida for Architects. 74-99. London: Routledge. p78 12 Gadamer, Hans-G. Philosophical Apprenticeships. Translation of Philosophische Lehrjahre (1977) by MIT Press. Baskerville: MIT Press. 1985. p178 13 Coyne, R. (2011) Derrida and Radical Practice. In Coyne, R. Derrida for Architects. 74-99. London: Routledge. p80 14 Warnke, G. Gadamer: Hermeneutics, Tradition and Reason. California: Stanford University Press. 1987. p3 15 Gadamer demonstrates his point that understanding is reached within a fusion of horizons. Importantly, the conditions under which a fusion of horizons takes place include observation of the prejudices an individual brings to (and project upon) the interpretive event – such conditions are beyond what one can see, however they constitute the horizon of a particular present, as something synchronic to an individual’s understanding. Warnke, G. Gadamer: Hermeneutics, Tradition and Reason. California: Stanford University Press. 1987. p3-5 16 Ibid. p3
is not fixed, but rather ever-changing, continuously signifying new perspectives, where
Filo Fragment Fictions
the most important thing is to unfold that which constitutes individual comprehension.17 According to Gadamer, the challenge hermeneutics is tasked with is not in developing a procedure of understanding, but rather with bringing clarity to the interpretive conditions in which understanding takes place. His fusion of horizons plays a critical role in this clarification, recognizing the points at which existing prejudice and a text intersect. Through Truth and Method Gadamer invokes the notion of play within our understanding of hermeneutical theory. In reference to aesthetics, he alludes to a definition of play - through Aristotle - as fulfilling its purpose only when the player invests himself in play.18 In play, one never acts alone, thus play can be seen as a toand-fro relationship with the player – for Gadamer, it is within such dialogue, and more importantly the will to engage in dialogue, that meaning is found. In terms of text, this involves a projection of one’s understanding, or prejudice onto the text - as without such prejudice, the reading process is impossible as impartial or objective understanding is unachievable.19 Thus, play is ultimately self-presentation: presentation of the prejudice that inherently shapes the individual. For Gadamer, pure subjectivity is not to be sought, as this would eradicate the need for the text in the first instance, however at the same time pure objectivity is considered unattainable. With this, each reading of a text is understood as a performance, as a reading of a text and a re-reading of said text inherently contains a different set of prejudices for each – ultimately, each approach to the text is a unique event. If, according to Gadamer, one presents one’s self in play – since, through Heidegger, the prejudices we all bear ultimately define who we are - then presentation is inherently part of this performative process. Gadamer’s understanding of presentation, and perhaps more importantly representation (or re-presentation) is discussed through the analogy of the musician – whereby play and its intrinsic structures (music) are presented for an audience.20 Through the performance of roles (enactment of structures) the player represents play for the audience – the resultant here being that play becomes about more than simply participation for the joy of play, but more so for the absorption – and arguably, for the certification - of an audience. Thus, in enacting the structures which dictate their play, player(s) are inherently representing (be it to themselves or an audience) play in attempting to make the music “sound good”. In terms of the fusion of horizons, Gadamer’s notion of play ultimately allows us to understand the event of reading as a unique event that is inherently related to (and to an extent dependant upon) the horizon of a particular present. The synchronic relationship between understanding as a reflection of the individual, and reading as a unique event, pertains to a distinct metaphysical understanding of both meaning and of the process of engagement with a text.
17 For discussion pertaining to Gadamer’s conception of understanding, it is important to note that “experience” is simply a means through which one extends one’s own ideological horizons in an ongoing process, which involves the shifting – and affirming - of individual prejudices. 18 Gadamer, H-G. (2004). The Ontology of the Work of Art and its Hermeneutic Significance - Play as the Clue to Ontological Explanation. In Gadamer, H-G. Truth and Method. 102-111. London: Continuum. p103. 19 Sullivan, R. R. Translator’s Introduction in Gadamer, Hans-G. Philosophical Apprenticeships. Translation of Philosophische Lehrjahre (1977) by MIT Press. Baskerville: MIT Press. 1985. pxii 20 Gadamer, H-G. (2004). The Ontology of the Work of Art and its Hermeneutic Significance - Play as the Clue to Ontological Explanation. In Gadamer, H-G. Truth and Method. 102-111. London: Continuum. p111.
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Derrida & Deconstruction. As discussed previously, Derrida enters into a debate regarding interpretation with Gadamer. In order to discuss Derrida’s key thoughts on reading and language, we must first establish and accept the inherent paradox that exists in doing so. As I will outline, Derrida destabilizes the way in which we use language, a contradiction that lies in the fact that one must use language to outline or comment on that which devalues it. We must, for the meantime, simply acknowledge and accept this contradiction in pursuit of understanding its position within Derrida’s method of Deconstruction – a term which, as with the previous chapter on Gadamer, obtains its clarity by virtue of some key points in its theoretical context. Like Gadamer, Derrida approaches the subject of hermeneutics from a poststructuralist position.
However
unlike Gadamer, for Derrida interpretation is not solely informed by a carried-forward prejudice, stating that there are such circumstances that one does not simply foresee or anticipate – the Other condition, which acts as a rupture or disturbance to our “horizons”.21 Like Apel, he claims that Gadamer misreads Heidegger: Derrida’s concern is that Gadamer, through his reading of Heidegger, remains fixed within a paradigm that, since Plato, has conceived of truth, logos, and rationality in terms of a metaphysics of presence. Metaphysics, generally understood as a branch of philosophical thought that pertains to the notion of first principle, inherits a series of corresponding ideas such as being, origin, knowledge and presence. Derrida however, proceeds to reject such singular notions, favouring a multi-centric system of knowledge, and thus can be understood to reject the notion of a singular set of origin principles. In the ‘Afterword’ to his Limited Inc., Derrida alludes to his definition of metaphysics as:
“The enterprise of returning ‘strategically’, ‘ideally’, to an origin or to a priority thought to be simple, intact, normal, pure, standard, self-identical, in order then to think in terms of derivation, complication, deterioration, accident, etc. All metaphysicians, from Plato to Rousseau, Descartes to Husserl, have proceeded in this way, conceiving good to be before evil, the positive before the negative, the pure before the impure, the simple before the complex, the essential before the accidental, the imitated before the imitation, etc. And this is not just one metaphysical gesture among others, it is the metaphysical exigency, that which has been the most constant, most profound and most potent”22
202
21 Coyne, R. (2011) Derrida and Radical Practice. In Coyne, R. Derrida for Architects. 74-99. London: Routledge. p78 22 Derrida, J. “Afterword” in Limited Inc, ed. Graff, trans. Weber, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1998 edition. p236
Here, according to Derrida, inherent in any pairing - particularly a dichotomy - there
Filo Fragment Fictions
involves a question of dominance: “the good before the evil”. Therefore, by definition there must exist a marginal and a central entity; Derrida’s interested is in the marginal, claiming that it is through the marginal that one understands the dominant. However, for Derrida, it is not as simple as discerning the marginal and amplifying it – it is not about “good” and “evil”, but rather speech and writing. Writing, according to linguists, is considered marginal to speech in terms of authenticity of communication23, acting merely as a visual representation of speech. Derrida opts for the written, claiming that everything Saussure states is true of the written – namely, its referential nature – is also true of speech. The Structuralist mode of thought, whereby it is neither the elements of language (namely, the words) nor the whole (the language itself) that are important, but rather the relations amongst elements is important to Ferdinand de Saussure – the father of Structuralism – and his project on language:
“In language there are only differences. Even more important: a difference generally implies positive terms between which the difference is set up; but in language there are only differences without positive terms. Whether we take the signified or the signifier, language has neither ideas nor sounds that existed before the linguistic system, but only conceptual and phonic differences that have issued from the system. The idea or phonic substance that a sign contains is of less importance than the other signs that surround it. [...] A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas; but the pairing of a certain number of acoustical signs with as many cuts made from the mass thought engenders a system of values.”24 Since the Derridean conception of language identifies the binary oppositions at play (for example, since there are only differences, one understands light by contrast to dark), understanding text itself can only be achieved by way of recognizing the oppositions of the words used. Derrida sees such differences as inherent in all language – all systems of distinct signs: codes, in which terms do not have an exact or absolute meaning, but rather allude to meaning by opposition with other terms.
His
means of reading offers an alternative perspective on the hermeneutic circle. Arche-Writing & Différance Derrida, in Of Grammatology, expands on this appropriation of oppositions, applying it to the broad conception of signification with regards to Saussure. Here, he argues signs always refer to other signs in an infinite chain of signification – alluding to the impossibility of a sign that refers only to itself. He further suggests that
“writing
is not a sign of a sign, except if one says it of all signs, which would be more 23 In his Course in General Linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure attempts to restrict the science of linguistics to the phonetic and audible, going as far as to argue that “language and writing are two distinct systems of signs: the second exists for the sole purpose of representing the first”. Language, Saussure claims, is an oral phenomenon independent of writing, advocating a pure science of speech. 24 Saussure, F de (1916 [trans. 1959]). Course in General Linguistics [Found at http://faculty.smu.edu/ dfoster/cf3324 /saussure.htm] New York: New York Philosophical Library. p121–22.
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profoundly true”25, and that such process of infinite referral, although never arriving at meaning itself, is the idea of writing that he wants to advance26: Arche-Writing. Arche-writing refers to a generalised notion of writing that asserts that the gap between what is intended to be conveyed and what is actually conveyed introduced by the written, is typical of an originary breach that affects everything one might wish to achieve through writing – namely, meaning. In terms of text, this idea recognizes the word as a sign can only ever infer connotations through its (unintentional or otherwise) signification to other words/signs. This originary breach of arche-writing can be understood as two interrelated ideas: spatial differing and temporal deferring. To illuminate the former Derrida emphases how writing is self-differential, simply suggesting that writing is separated or differed by the absence that makes it necessary. An example of this is when one writes something down because they might forget it, or to communicate it to an absentee. According to Derrida, all writing must operate in the absence of every potential addressee – be it the absence of the “someone else”, or the memory of the written information - and thus inherently relies on absence. 27 Furthermore, Derrida considers deferral as characteristic of the written, reinforcing his position that the meaning of a text is never directly present – a word only ever infers other words and never directly conveys meaning.28 The meaning of a text is constantly subject to the course of the future, but when said future is itself present, its meaning is equally unestablished, but is instead further subject to yet another future that can also never be present. This is the infinite chain of references, which Derrida asserts is where meaning is found. With this, one cannot simply invite Derrida to explain or elaborate his understanding of a subject, since any such explanatory terms he may offer would in themselves infer other words, requiring further explanation. This is the essence of deferral, which, in combination with differing that we have seen him associate with, Derrida comes to illustrate as two interconnected processes in another of his neologisms: différance. Deconstruction Like many of Derrida’s terms, Deconstruction has two mutually exclusive and opposing meanings: to destroy/assemble. Deconstruction instinctively sounds like a form of destruction, of undoing some construction with an eye towards a more informed - perhaps meaningful - reconstruction. However, this consoling prospect of reconstruction is inconsistent with any rigorous sense of Deconstruction as Derrida would have it, which instead reveals the impossibility of setting up “perfect” or “ideal” structures as found in Structuralist. Contrary to any misconception pertaining to destruction, Deconstruction – drawing from Heidegger’s destruction29 - demonstrates what Derrida calls “de-sedimentation,” implies undoing the consolidation that occurs with systems of thought.30 This is not with the aim of merely destroying the structures, but rather
204
25 Derrida, J. Of Grammatology, trans. Spivak, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1976. p43 26 This is not writing narrowly understood as literal inscription of marks upon a page, but rather a broader concept that applies to the appropriation of an idea by giving it a specific word – a sort of compromise of “pure” meaning as alluded to by Phenomenology, in favour of inheriting the apparently inaccurate (but nonetheless appropriate and relevant) synonyms of the specified term. 27 Derrida, J. Margins of Philosophy, trans. Bass, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. p375 28 Snodgrass, A. & Coyne, R. Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking. London: Routledge. 2006. p175 29 A term Heidegger coins as pertaining to the destruction of ontological concepts, expanding the vocabulary of terms such as “god”, “being” and “logic” so as to infer a broader range of terms. This holds resonance in Derrida’s différance and furthermore his Deconstruction. 30 Ramberg, B. & Gjesdal, K. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2009. Hermeneutics. (ed Zalta, E.) Found at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hermeneutics.
implies a reconstitution according to the previously unseen conditions of their
Filo Fragment Fictions
institution,31 ultimately revealing the contradictory nature of texts, and by extension the institutions from which they derive. For Derrida, Deconstruction is not a method of understanding that is somehow carried out upon the text itself, but rather something that already occurs within the text. This denies the reader the capacity for any kind of “ideal” restructuring, favouring instead the paradoxical nature of the way in which a text exists and is articulated. It also means that once Deconstruction has been “recognized”, the absurdities of the text become apparent - thus ultimately revealing the product of what Derrida understands as institutional values. Often confused for meaning, such values are inherently part of the way we communicate, with understanding existing as a product of our learning. The institution for Derrida aligns closely with Gadamer’s prejudice and is an idea which he strongly opposes, claiming such communities (such as those outlined by Gallager) are too secure, relying too much on harmony and agreement between participants for interpretation to work – an agreement, he believes, cannot be assumed by the reader.32
31 32 ledge. p82
Idem. Coyne, R. (2011) Derrida and Radical Practice. In Coyne, R. Derrida for Architects. 74-99. London: Rout-
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Design Studio.
Intersections & Interjections: Where does this leave Architecture? The disparity between Derrida and Gadamer - their understandings of Heidegger as well as their general theories of truth and meaning - were explicitly brought to the fore during the meeting between the two in Paris in 1981. Here Derrida questioned Gadamer’s hermeneutic idea of a continuously unfolding continuity of understanding, asserting that meaning is not based on the will to dialogue alone. Most fundamentally - through différance as demonstrated by Deconstruction - Derrida’s meaning is made possible by absence: by the ever-deferral network of structures, and the relations of a word to other words that constitutes what language ultimately is. For Derrida, the relation to the speech of others, or to the texts of the past, is not one of mutual respect, interaction and agreement.33 Gadamer argues that Derrida’s position - a rejection of any realization of absolute meaning - potentially entails indifference, stating a focus on discontinuity and fragmentation resembles the kind of thinking that he criticized, in the first part of Truth and Method, as “aesthetic consciousness”. 34 As Caputo (1987) outlines35, Gadamer’s “philosophical hermeneutics” is a reaction against radical hermeneutics: an attempt to obstruct the radicalization of hermeneutics turning attention back to the realm metaphysics. Gadamer pursues a more comfortable paradigm in his fusion of horizons: the maintenance of the tradition which reads in Heidegger only a (metaphysical) philosophy of appropriation. For Gadamer the matter to be thought is the fundamental content of the metaphysical tradition in the notions of dialogue in Plato and phronesis in Aristotle.36 Despite its effective critique of “method” the question of “truth” in Truth and Method remains within the metaphysics of truth.37 Rather than seek to position either theory within the realm of correctness – an exercise that would be ineffectual and ultimately counterproductive – I will instead recognise the key points that have thus far been outlined, and position questions as a means of interrogating both further. Insofar as this dialogue has raised a multitude of concerns pertaining to interpretation in architecture, there are some key issues that I wish to discuss in further detail. Lets first regard Derrida’s resilience towards metaphysics. Let us, for the meantime, assume that the agenda of the architect is the creation of a meaningful mediation of the various conditions of a particular set of conditions (site, program, tectonic, demographic etc) and allow this process to manifest in built form that ultimately makes a positive contribution towards said situation. However this is not necessarily the case if, as Derrida states, one must look beyond the metaphysics of presence (as found in Gadamer’s hermeneutics) towards a process that continually seeks to draw out the transgressive nature of understanding. With this, the issue as an architect
206
33 Kinsella E. A. Hermeneutics and Critical Hermeneutics - Exploring Possibilities Within the Art of Interpretation. 2009 34 Gadamer, H-G. Truth and Method. 102-111. London: Continuum. 35 John Caputo in his Radical Hermeneutics, as outlined by Coyne (2011) understands Derrida’s theory on language as categorised within the terrain of “radical hermeneutics”. Coyne, R. (2011) Derrida and Radical Practice. In Coyne, R. Derrida for Architects. 74-99. London: Routledge. p80 36 Ramberg, B. & Gjesdal, K. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2009. Hermeneutics. (ed Zalta, E.) Found at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hermeneutics. 37 Caputo, J. Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction and the Hermeneutic Project. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 1987. p5-6
becomes - why seek to make something better? If the architect were to discard all
Filo Fragment Fictions
prejudice – thus rendering any ethical decision-making process impossible38 – then how does the design process - like reading for Gadamer – begin in the first instance? Furthermore, beyond this problematic, is the prospect of an intervention seeking to make a positive contribution to an urban condition even possible from a studio project, since (according to Derrida) our understanding of “betterness” is simply an institutionalised notion enforced by the pedagogy in which it originates? Perhaps a more appropriate architecture, in light of Derrida’s Deconstruction, is one that operates through “pure” syntax.39 Ultimately the tension between Gadamer’s instance on the metaphysics of presence, and Derrida’s rejection of the metaphysical notion of an absolute and obtainable meaning, are manifest in a conflict of interests in the architect’s agenda. How does the architect, assuming neither theory is “incorrect”, pursue
an
architecture
that
simultaneously
rejects
metaphysics
and
provides
a
contribution to the notion of betterness? The design studio, currently situated in Olbia, Sardinia, invariably seeks to make some kind of ethical contribution towards betterness through reaction to specific urban and socio-economic conditions. However, the question remains of how is this possible given the my own conception of “better” remains a singular perception? Do I, as an architect, presume the role of the author? Fulfilling this role requires both a sophisticated articulation of text (as architecture) supported by a careful prereading of the conditions that must be brought to bear on said articulation – the aforementioned conditions of the city. Below is an attempt at such urban reading, whereby Olbia is conceived as a series of layers, interrogation of which reveals the beginnings of a series of internal structures. This approach, although borrowing much from the Derridean vocabulary, aligns much more closely with Gadamer’s concept of reading, inevitably involving the horizons of the reader to determine the manner in which such interrogation processes are carried out.
38 Snodgrass, A.B. (2006). Playing by the Rules. In A. B. Snodgrass, and R. D. Coyne (eds.), Interpretation In Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking: 59-68. London: Routledge. p59 39 I place the word pure in quotation marks to enforce the point Derrida makes with regards to writing and meaning – as inevitably the use of any term over a series of alternatives is ultimately a product of my understanding and articulation of the idea of “pureness”.
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Gadamer’s conception of play as the “bringing to bear” of prejudice towards a problematic, is as discussed an attitude that ultimately exists as an institution. Lets assume the function of play in design as a way of thinking that encourages a to-and-fro movement and is something that aids the process by which architecture is created. However, is it something that helps a reading of architecture per se? In terms of experiencing architecture, the answer is yes – however in terms of design pedagogy, Derrida’s institution continues to question the architect who avoids acting within a canon whilst attempting to make design decisions, which inescapably entail an ethical component? Upon reflection of its formation, this paper’s structure resembles in many ways the pairing of Gadamer and Derrida: the linear hermeneutic development through Heidegger and Gadamer builds upon the ideas of predecessors in a forward-looking manner, much like Gadamer’s anticipation of the dialogue with Derrida. However, as the conversation between the two demonstrated, Derrida’s Deconstruction of the very principles under which the former’s argument is based, leaves the audience with a series of relatively open-ended questions. Perhaps in this light, the design studio that maintains the pursuit of an ever-deferred meaning is enough. If, as Derrida illustrates, a text’s meaning lies within the trace left by infinite deferral; whilst according to Gadamer a fusion of horizons demonstrates the importance of engagement in seeking meaning; then perhaps it is enough to simply benefit from such a pursuit? Is the joy of architecture to be found somewhere between Derrida’s denial of an obtainable meaning and Gadamer’s assurance of a heightened plain of existence for the subject that comes through play? Engaging in pursuit seems the only way to find out.
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