Stillness in Motion: A RISD BArch Thesis by Jessica Luscher

STILLNESS IN MOTION IN STILLNESS EXCAVATION OF AN ALPINE SOUNDSCAPE

Thesis by Jessica Luscher Rhode Island School of Design Bachelor of Architecture 2014 Bachelor of Fine Arts 2013

Jessica Luscher Rhode Island School of Design Bachelor of Architecture 2014 Bachelor of Fine Arts 2013

There is a place caught high in the peaks of the Central Swiss Alps.

At the culmination of a six hour hiking trek, 1000 meters above a deep and vibrant glacial lake, above the roaming cows and mountain shrubs, one passes rocky lines of glacial till and the first spotting of enduring summer snow to encounter a small house built from rock. The architecture pushes up from the crumbling ruin of the hard mountain and slices its pitched roof into the vast

sky. Standing with this house, we confront the tangible datums of our architecture next to the infinite horizon of what is outside of us. Within the rolling clouds, the shifting shadows, and the concentrated, electric air, we acknowledge the weight of our mortality, the timeline it constructs, and our subsequent actions.

The Oeshinen Lake is a popular tourist destination in the Central Swiss Alps. The lake is reached year round by foot (40 min), tourist bus, and gondala.

ous types climb hiking trails up the mountain ridges to reach isolated mountain lodges which offer room and board to hikers.

In the Summer, a hotel and restaurant at the foot of the lake rents paddle boats and canoes to eager outdoor enthusiasts, who come to enjoy the site’s beauty, go fishing, hiking, or come to eat or stay in the rustic mountain hotel. Between May and October, adventur-

In the Winter, the lakeside restaurant serves skiiers from the nearby resort and rents ice fishing equiptment. The lake remains frozen for ice fishing between November and February.

THE SITE The research and design proposal concern a glacial alpine lake and the network of hiking lodges and trails which traverse the mountains in the bowl that rises around the lake. The Oeschinensee is a popular tourist destination in the Central Swiss Alps. The lake is reached year round by foot (40 min), tourist bus, and gondala.

In the summer, a hotel and restaurant at the foot of the lake rents paddle boats and canoes to eager outdoor enthusiasts, who come to enjoy the site’s beauty, go fishing, hiking, or come to eat or stay in the rustic mountain hotel. Between May and October, adventurous types climb hiking trails up the mountain ridges to reach isolated mountain lodges which offer room and board to hikers. From the lodges, tourists participate in glacial tours.

In the winter, the lakeside restaurant serves skiiers from the nearby ski resort and rents ice fishing equiptment. The lake remains frozen for ice fish in between December and February.

BELOW: View of the lake from the lake hotel. The water depth of the lake, averaging 184 ft, ranges 40 ft throughout the year due to spring glacial melt.

Weather and activity in the Oeschinen Valley varies greatly with the seasons.

The Thesis Board is both a physical object at human scale with a distinct, physical presence in this gallery, and also a portal into a world where the human body can no longer be used to help us understand the scale of a vast environment. The board acknowledges that the world is not flat or static.

The arc tracks the movement of the world and of the human head. it makes us aware of the tangible space at our feet, and the unknown beyond our mental and physical reach.

Part 1: Network Across the Abyss The map describes the hiker’s journey from Kandersteg, the small touwn at the foot of the moutain, up to the Oeschinen Lake and onwards to the isolated mountain hiker’s lodges.

Rhino Model, VRay, Photoshop The house became the point of entry into the site. It is the space I physically inhabited most often while in this mountain site. It became the departure point for my research because it is a place from which people regurlarly experience the rest of the site.

Experiential Section of the Mountain Hike Manipulated personal photography, Google Earth, Rhino, Illustrator, and Photoshop

In contrast to the static rock, the weather in my alpine site is treacherous and ever-changing. I researched temperature fluctuations, cloud movement, and wind directionality at various elevations and locations in the mountain bowl, and I noticed patterns. I used cameras installed at various locations along the mountain ridges to map the vertical movement of clouds throughout the day. How could I make people more aware of these gigantic systems, during their time in the mountain bowl?

My device manipulated wind from various directions in order to create sounds with varied pitches, depending on the wind’s directionality. To reiterate my initial interest in the scale of the mountain bowl, I decided to make this intervention not only an announcement of wind, but also a way of a reminding the hiker of his or her place in an expansive network of surrounding houses and people.

Rhino Model, VRay, Photoshop

Handheld Organ Pipes constructed from quartersawn Douglas Fir (24� to 48� in length)

There are several temporarily inhabited buidings located throughout the mountain bowl. In order to create a network between these distant locations, I designed a series of organ pipes to be mounted on the roof of each mountain lodge. Via this sound network, the Breath of the Mountain provided a unique voice for each house, regardless of time of year or occupation.

Designs from The Diverse and Artifactitious Machines of Captain Agostino Ramelli, published in 1588.

Part 2: The Man and the House and the Machine Our lives in Stillness and in Motion The still machine represents a moment in the life of a manmade object. Machines have a legible functionality. A still machine alludes to a past and future time in which the machine may act on its environment. As it remains still, people remain aware of their palce in a greater continuum of time. The same is true when an individual looks at a drawing which represents a three-dimensional moment in the life of a moving object.

Hybrid Hand Drawing/AutoCAD, Pen, Graphite, Acrylic, Photoshop

Wind, Sound and Undercurrents of Energy I became interested in wind because it is a strong fource in the site which is not visible unti it catches the edge of something else. In this situation, an intervention is required to catalyze the experience for a person; the intervention allows you to imagine the air movement everywhere else. In the Wind Machine drawings and constructs, the wind is harnessed as a mechanical force to create a situation out of human control.

The Excavating Wind Machine, Vertical Section 1 Hybrid Hand Drawing/AutoCAD, Pen, Graphite, Acrylic, Photoshop (67�H x 28� W)

Side Elevation, Wind Machine in Motion Manipulated photography

Wind Machine Reproduced, Photogravure Prints

Top View, Wind Machine in Stillness

Side View, Wind Machine in Stillness

The Excavating Wind Machine 2, Forward in Time Hybrid Hand Drawing/AutoCAD, Pen, Graphite, Acrylic, Photoshop (67”H x 32” W)

The Excavating Wind Machine 3, Excavating the Pantheon Hybrid Mixed Media, Pen, Graphite, Acrylic, Photoshop (67”H x 35” W)

The Sound Excavator Vertical Section Hybrid Mixed Media, Pen, Graphite, Acrylic, Photoshop (67”H x 35” W)

Part 3: Collecting Sound in the Oeschinen Valley The final intervention is located at the center of the Oeschinen Lake because this is the ideal location to excavate sound from across the valley, thereby condensing the entire site into a single Sound Vessel.

Sound moves well through water because water is

dense and uniform. Water also propogates sound very well across its smooth surface, even moreso in this situation because alpine glacial water is cooler than the air above it, so sound naturally bends towards the cooler air at the lake’s surface. Due to the geometry of the mountains, sound is also naturally bounced into the lake center.

Sound Vessel Path

Sound Sources

Sound Travel on Water

Lake Inlets

In the mountain bowl, sound bounces off of the concave rock walls and collects at the center of the lake.

Sound in Mountain Bowl Geometry

Sound Physics Study Models

Model 1: Vibration Amplification through Sound Box A metal spring produces vibrations when hit by a wooden mallet. These vibrations remain silent until they are given a chamber to resonate in. The addition of a stirofoam cup allows the vibrations to resonate (from silence up to 60 decibels) Conclusion: A vessel in the datum line of the water will amplify vibrations currently silently moving through the water.

Model 2: Water Buoyancy, Cord Tension and Pitch A Vertical water tank uses the upward buoyant force on a can to tension a cable running through the water, attached from the base to the can.

The higher the water lever, the greater the tension on the cord.

The higher the tension on the cord, the higher the pitch amplified by the can.

Conclusion: The changing level of the glacial lake changes the pitch of the resonances propogated from the bottom of the lake by a tensioned anchoring cable.

Part 4: Construction and Life of the Sound Vessel In order to build the sound vessel on site, a site-specific dry dock and crane are constructed at the edge of the lake.

The empty dry dock and crane remain on the shoreline while the soundvessel drifts across the mile-wide lake.

When travelers come across the dry dock, they will wonder what prompted its construction and they will feel the absence of the vessel which it is built to support.

Radial Geometry

Roof Plan

Water Datum Plan

Machine Room Plan

Water Level April (0’)

THE DESIGN PROPOSAL The Boathouse Roof Plan

Water Level September (-40’)

The Boathouse Interior View

The Boathouse from Water

The Boathouse from Land

A system of ladders provides circulation from the docks to the roof and to the interior via the oculus.

The bottom room is occupied by a large crank system which “tunes� the building in relationship to the lake bottom.

Sound Vessel Construction Tectonic Diagrams

The structural hull is a steel membrane, designed as a double curvature surface rigid by 24 identical radial ribs. The structural ribs are based on the structural design of a boat hull.

A radial grid of steel is designed on the same interval as the structural ribs and creates a walking surface suspended withinthe boat hull structure.

Decking modules, constructed out of 1x3� boards , are radially arrayed to provide surfaces for sitting and walking.

A system of ladders provides circulation from the docks to the roof and to the interior via the oculus.

The bottom room is occupied by a large crank system which “tunes� the building in relationship to the lake bottom.

Exterior steel floats independently around the interior structure. This allows the exterior shell to vibrate and amplify sound with the least interruption.

The steel exterior surface provides a waterproof hull and shear strength for the structure, while propogating sound from the water via vibration.

Sound Vessel First Floor Interior View

Sound Vessel Lower Machine Room Interior View showing tensioning crank

Final Thesis Review Presentation

Final Model Documentation

Sound Vessel Scale Model 1/2” = 1’0” Lasercut Baltic Birch Plywood, Basswood, aluminum wire, and 1/4” plexiglass Wood is stained, spray painted or varnished to achieve colors,

The bottom room is occupied by a large crank system which “tunes� the building in relationship to the lake bottom.

Decking modules, constructed out of 1x3� boards , are radially arrayed to provide surfaces for sitting and walking.

A system of ladders provides circulation from the docks to the roof and to the interior via the oculus.

The structural hull is a steel membrane, designed as a double curvature surface rigid by 24 identical radial ribs.

The structural ribs are based on the structural design of a boat hull.

The bottom room is occupied by a large crank system which “tunes� the building in relationship to the lake bottom.

The tension is distributed to the oculus of the building via a series of pulleys. The lock and tackle system make opperating the crank easier for a pair of people.

From the exterior, the tension of the anchoring cable can be predicted by the deformation of the roof louvres via tension on the oculus.

The Sound Vessel is approached via water by boat and then entered from the roof via the oculus ladder.

The stationary machine has a loaded presence in the echoing, gently rocking Sound Vessel.

The curious hikers and tourists wonder, what action does the machine perform, and when? Was it abandoned? Why is it here, and who built it? Who opperates the machine?

Where is the vibration coming from?

Is this safe?

Thank You

Jessica Luscher Rhode Island School of Design Bachelor of Architecture 2014 Bachelor of Fine Arts 2013

email: jluscher@risd.edu See or download my full design portfolio or abbreviated portfolio samples at http://issuu.com/jessicaluscher