CITY FRAGMENTS: PALERMO INSTITUTIONS
design.
[2019]
003
palermo institutions [brief three: act (II)]
Performing Palermo Privacy—Paper, Piazza, Palazzo—Publicity Re-figuring performative practices and establishing new means of working in and on the city, the thesis takes papyrus as material, together with layering and folding as process and technique, to not only form a tectonic language but also as a reflection of the (lost) landscape of Palermo. Performing La Vucciria proposes a performative tectonics of masks, curtains and veils: An Institution for Television and Radio Broadcast in the heart of La Vucciria.
joseph coulter / MArch 1 ariana monioudis / MArch 2
palermo institutions [brief three act (II)]
Performing Palermo Privacy—Paper, Piazza, Palazzo—Publicity Re-figuring performative practices and establishing new means of working in and on the city, the thesis takes papyrus as material, together with layering and folding as process and technique, to not only form a tectonic language but also as a reflection of the (lost) landscape of Palermo. Performing La Vucciria proposes a performative tectonics of masks, curtains and veils: An Institution for Television and Radio Broadcast in the heart of La Vucciria.
[2019]
CITY FRAGMENTS: PALERMO INSTITUTIONS
* joseph coulter / MArch 1 * ariana monioudis / MArch 2
*chris french *maria mitsoula
Setting up thematic cues and a framework for intervention within the city.
city fragments: palermo institutions
“Architecture should be seen not as a summary of totalities but rather as an open collection of fragments assembled to… produce a world that is recognizably unreal but ordered, where the technology of architecture reveals the reality being simultaneously surveyed and designed…”1 “City Fragments is a new MArch Modular Pathway studio, developed for 2018-19. This brief sets out both the overall aspiration for the studio (developed in more detail in specific assignments or ‘acts’), and offers potential methodologies and frames by which to develop projects and theses for Palermo, Sicily. It aims to instigate both the development of materialspatial strategies (and concomitant technical and environmental strategies) for and deriving from Palermo, and to develop means of representation appropriate to the situation, the key themes of the studio, and to the architectures that emerge in response to those themes. It offers many entry ways into thinking Palermo.”2 The studio will pursue design- research methodologies to develop architectural speculations–at the scale of the body, the building, and the city–for Palermo, a city performed and a city of fragments.
1. French, Chris and Mitsoula, Maria, City Fragments: Palermo Institutions, Project Brief: Vol. 1, Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture, September 2018. p. ii.
2. Frascari, Marco, ‘Carlo Scarpa in Magna Graecia: The Abatellis Palace in Palermo’ in AA Files. No. 9 (Summer 1985). p 9.
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Imagery sourced from studio brief.
preface / studio agenda
figure 1.
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preface / thesis absract
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The local response has been to reclaim the abandoned palaces; re-appropriation by agents motivated to expose the cultural fractures of the city.
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figure 2. Uwe Jaentsch’s Bancomat installation, Piazza Garraffello, Vucciria
Palermo is a city of pomp, performance and pageantry. It is home to the largest Opera House in Europe, the Teatro Massimo, built to celebrate the unification of Italy (Risorgimento). At its height, during the Belle Époque, the urban palazzi of the princes of the city – adorned with material that announced the wealth of an aristocracy at odds with a population in relative poverty – hosted extravagant balls and feasts. Today, the palazzi are in ruins, a result of profligacy, the bombings of World War II and the abandonment of the old city. Theatres lie closed or in ruins. Despite increasing economic disparities, UNESCO funding and money sourced from the integration of the city into global real estate networks has resulted in exclusively high-value restoration projects, spaces off-limits to many. The local response has been to reclaim the abandoned palaces; desolate buildings are being re-appropriated by agents motivated to expose the cultural fractures present in the city. These re-appropriations re-figure classical notions of publicity and privacy, piazza and palazzo, and performer and spectator, culminating in new public palaces composed of interiors where publicity is performed. The city has become a stage; a new era of affective theatricality is emerging. Performing LaVucciria proposes a performative tectonic of masks, curtains and veils. An Institution forTelevision and Radio Broadcast in the heart of La Vucciria provides a platform for emerging creative practices, allowing them to be recognised and heard.
‘preset’ [brief three act (II)]
Anything in position before the beginning of a scene or act (eg Props placed on stage before the performance, lighting state on stage as the audience are entering.
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preset / a city of chaos
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City wide figure ground density plan.
Palermo is a city built on ancient empires, often regarded as the most conquered city in the world. For over two millennia the city, its spaces and occupants have been re-shaped by the different cultures, religions and regimes which have occupied it. Temples have become basilica, become churches, become mosques, become cathedrals. Forging a city perpetually ‘becoming’.4
Additionally, it has undergone changes to its landscape. Cala Bay originally projected inland where it met two rivers, the River Papierto and the river Kemonia. This inland harbour formed the boundaries for the old town of Palermo. After the 17th century these rivers were in filled and changed into streets resulting in the tight meandering roads which make up the urban layout today.This historic cityscape is significantly different to the grid like layout present outside the city walls in the new town.
“It is a multi-ethnic society because of its history and multi-faceted identity, because of the relationship of the citizens of the past and present with the foreigner, be they the new ruler, artist or artisan.” 3
figure 3.
3. Visit Palermo, (24th August, 2017). Palermo Italian Capital of Culture 2018. Available: https://www.visitpalermo.it/en/meraviglia/palermo-italian-capitalof-5.%20culture-2018-408.html 4. French, C and Mitsoula, M, City Fragments: Palermo Institutions, Project Brief, ESALA, p. 1.
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“Every day in Palermo is like waking up after the apocalypse and realising that life goes on.” 5
preset / a city of decay
The last Century has also brought about significant change to the city, people and culture. Palermo suffered huge damages to its historic centre by allied bombing during WWII, much of which has been left un-repaired. Following this, from the 1950s to mid 1980s the city underwent a construction boom that has come to be known as the Sack of Palermo. This development, largely commissioned by mafian enterprises, illicit interests, and corrupt governance resulted in the large destruction of the green belt, known as the Conca d’Oro, due to the urbanisation of vast territories of agricultural land.
Existing state and ‘patchwork’ of existing historic built fabric.
5. Mackay, Jamie, Precarious Europe (14th September, 2014). Palermo is a Laboratory for the Precariat. Available: http://www. precariouseurope.com/lives/palermo-laboratory-precariat. Last accessed 30th October, 2018. 6. Visit Palermo, Palermo Italian Capital of Culture 2018. 7. Mackay, J, Precarious Europe. Palermo is a Laboratory for
the Precariat.
palermo / a city of decay
Additionally, within the city centre, the desire for a ‘new Palermo’ turned focus away from restoring the historic fabric and with it much of the city’s heritage and cultural identity, in favour of large scale concrete constructions.6 However, a whole series of these developments ended up being left incomplete or stopped early on making abandonment, unfinished, unbuilt, the trio of qualities particular to Palermo’s architecture.7
figure 4 & 5.
figures 6 - 9. Existing site images from Piazza Garraffello and surrounding context(s).
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Now, after many years of apostasy, elements of the city’s economic climate are beginning to progress, however change is slow. In 2016, the national government implemented the “Pact for Palermo” as many manufacturing industries are still heavily reliant on state support. €5.7 billion was allocated for infrastructure, the environment, production assets and economic development through construction. 9 Palermo is currently the fifth most populous city in Italy with 676,000 people residing in the city centre. However, with the huge influx of immigrants which Siciliy has incurred over the last few years, combined with high rates of unemployment with youth unemployment one of the highest in Europe at 57%, demands on the city are greater than ever. As a result, many of those that can are leaving the city. Palermo has experienced one of the most dramatic cases of exodus in Europe, losing 10,000 residents in the past ten years, with another 150,000 set to leave by 2050 with many in the mindset that this is a place without future.Those that are staying do so out of necessity, for family or health, or sometimes obligation through a sense of belonging.10
8. Mackay, J, Precarious Europe. Palermo is a Laboratory for the Precariat. 10. Mackay, J, Precarious Europe. Palermo is a Laboratory for the Precariat.
palermo / a city wtih no futue
9. Visit Palermo, Palermo Italian Capital of Culture 2018.
“Visiting Palermo is indeed like walking through the apocalypse, and the long-term implications of this total rejection of the state are evident at every turn.The city’s bombastic architecture is now in a state of advanced decay. Eighteenth century palazzi and squares built in the Bourbon era lie crumbling, covered in anti-government graffiti. Byzantine churches are overshadowed by piles of rubbish and the impressive Norman Cathedral is just streets away from a vast network of slums left unrepaired since the Allied bombing inWWII. Framing this bedlam is a sprawling ring of skeleton suburbs, built by the Mafia in the ‘70s and left without public spaces, shops or transport links to the city centre”.8
“What you find beyond Kalsa is
essentially the persistence of debris. �
loggia dei catalani A catalyst for exploration and continual investigation through propositional lines of enquiry.
palermo / loggia dei catalani
Setting out ‘fields’ of institution(s) and ‘fragments’ of history.
city fragment (s)
“In Palermo there is a sense of annihilation around any project.What you find beyond Kalsa, for instance, is essentially the persistence of debris. Like Vucciria, it is a fossil; for forty years, it has survived any attempt at modernisation, it is the evidence of total imperviousness to any form of government. First-time visitors perceive the ruins of the1943 bombing as something impressive,but for people of Palermo they are an integral part of the city. Indeed, they are involuntary monuments to everything that hasn’t happened in recent years.” 11 The studio comes to Palermo at a time where it momentarily finds itself the centre of international attention. Following decades of neglect and oversight, 2018 brought Manifesta to the city, the most influential art biennale in Europe, it was voted Italian Capital of Culture and the Norman palaces and cathedrals in the historic centre were recognised as UNESCO world heritage sites. It is a place whose history, reputation and needs, past and present, is beginning to be understood. City Fragments: Palermo Institutions studio acknowledges that this historical, fragmented city, somehow, works; it is a place of work. It takes interest in exploring interventions in the intersections between the different spaces of the city (which embody different times, politics, histories, etc.) to develop new spaces for Palermo within this understanding of temporality and situation. While not involved with itinerant architectures but rather in the same way the fair evolved into the museum as a concretisation of social practices, it explores how new temporal institutions of spaces of performance can make new building programmes.12
11. Prescia, Renata, ‘La Vucciria tra storia e progetto’ in La Vucciria Tra Rovine e Restauri. ed. by Prescia, Renata, (Palermo: Salvare Palermo, 2015), p. 60. 12. French, C and Mitsoula, M, City Fragments: Palermo Institutions, Project Brief, ESALA, p. 7.
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figure 11. An introduction to Palermo’s lost landscape.
I.
* La Cala * Piazza San Domenico
‘Abandonland’
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01. Cala Bay 02. Castellamarre (one of the four districts
which make up the historic centre) 03. Kalsa (one of the four districts which make up the histroic centre) 04. Quattro Canti (nodal point of the city) 05. Chiesa san Domenico (one of many extravegant churches in the centre) 06. Teatro Massimo (the largest opera house in Italy) 07. Boundary between the old and new town. 08. Via Roma 09. Via Vittorio Emmanuele
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figure 12. The thesis is deeply routed in the old town of Palermo, specifically within the district of Vucciria.
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preset / thesis field
figure 13. Theatrum Mundi: a field of performative architectures.
Palermo Institutions (Act II) [brief three]
contents
‘exposition’
1.
‘blocking’
10.
‘gesture’
38.
‘repertory ‘
58.
‘denouement’
85.
bibliography
104.
pomp, performance pageantry, within the city walls piazza garrafello and vucciria
fragments of performative practive uwe, the protagon(art)ist screening Masbedo chasing authentiCITY drawing Room(s) piazza garraffello thesis fragments
emerging practices performative infrastructure thetic outputs
sustainability in the city through design through construction through time
final installation final composition
figures references
The following document is organised to present a comprehensive understanding of the conditions which lead to the Institution of Broadcasting and Radio inVucciria.The chapter titles refer to various stages of a theatrical performance and are paralleled with various stages of the development of the thesis. “Preset” - Anything in position before the beginning of a scene or act (eg Props placed on stage before the performance, lighting state on stage as the audience are entering.) This section considers the recent past of Palermo and the defining factors which have lead to the current situation Palermo finds itself in. Exposition: “The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided” This section considers the cultural situation directly related to the line of enquiry of the thesis and the angle which the thesis takes Blocking:The process of arranging moves to be made by the actors during the play. Positions at the start of scenes are noted, as are all movements around the stage It must be described in minute detail, but simple enough to enable anyone to read and understand it. This section takes two fragments which began the line of enquiry for the thesis. It looks at how their influence has been implemented throughout the project and explains how this, combined with the cultural situation found, has been manifested into the thesis. Gesture:The physical movement of a character during a play. Gesture is used to reveal character, and may include facial expressions as well as movements of other parts of an actor’s body. This section explores the derivatives of the architectonic language produced for the thesis and addresses the various outputs which acted as enquiries into the formation of this language. Repertory: A system of producing plays in which a company of actors is assembled to stage a number of plays during a specific period of time.The repertory company included actors, each of whom played roles in several plays throughout a theatrical season In this section the possibility for a transferrable language is addressed as well as how the project and thesis engages with sustainability from city to site. Denouement: is the final outcome of the main complication in a play. Usually the denouement occurs after the climax (the turning point or “crisis”). It is sometimes referred to as the explanation or outcome of a drama that reveals all the secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot. The final section explores the final exhibition and composition of the design and how it has responded to all the conditions established in the previous chapters.
‘ Performance ’ is conceived and practiced
here; beyond the theatre and past the
chapter title / page title
‘exposition’ [brief three act (II)]
The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided
‘exposition’ / pomp, performance & pageantry
An unrealistic idealisation and misalignment of state priorities leaves a city scattered with decaying affluence: a lost landscape. Palermo was once a city of pomp, performance and pageantry. Extravagant palaces were built for nobility, patrons and affluent families keen to show off their social superiority. In front of these palazzos, piazzas were established, their intention to frame the grandeur of these buildings and provide a visual reminder of the seperation between one social group and another. 13 Even grander institutions accompanied these palazzos, such as the Teatro Massimo. Architectures which form the silhouette of the city, visible from multiple locations become what is widely associated with that city. Therefore, in 1897, when Massimo opened its doors as one of the biggest opera houses in Italy, (and one of the biggest in Europe), it was clear that it was designed in the intention of representing ‘the image of the city’.
Italian cities, Sicily and in particular Palermo, was, and remains, in contrast a significantly poorer area than many of those that surround it. As a result, the majority of residents were unable to afford these extravagant past times and plots that could have been assigned for housing for the larger majority of the population were dedicated to palazzi, churches and theatres.
of Palermo. Even today, where small amounts of time and money are beginning to be invested in parts of the city, it would have been expected that the greatest attention would be given to the enormity of the housing crisis.
WWII bombings destroyed the little housing that existed in the city centre and today large portions of the housing stock is found on the periphery of the As a result the arts there have in city over-occupied and decaying. PAlermo hav continued to remain as something for the people. The extent of abandonment and Furthermore, the profligacy of deserted heritage, combined with a these princes resulted in many of the built environment formed through palazzos being abandoned leaving a city an overlapping of era, power and scattered with decaying grandeur. priority persents Palermo as a lost landscape constructed of a patchwork This misalignment of state priorities of materials, surfaces and textures and funding towards the people in desperate for some revitalisation. true occupation the city in favour Complicated issues with real estate of an unrealistic idealisation that and an ongoing ignorance of the seeks to complete with Italian cities Municipalities governing Palermo, While these buildings don’t seem like Florence and Rome remains a however, mean little is being done to unusual in comparison to many recurring theme in the development rectify the situation.
13. Canniffe, Eamonn, The Politics of the Piazza: The History and Meaning of the Italian Square, (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2012), p.70.
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figure 15. Teatro Massimo: through the lost landscape.
‘exposition’ / pomp, performance & pageantry
‘exposition’
quattro canti: within the city walls
“Because of the simultaneous municipal neglect and acceleration of the its physical degradation, La Vucciria has become desertified and vain for the government.” 14
iria ucc *V
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ti an oC ttr a Qu
* Kalsa
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figure 16. Historic city map of four districts; ‘Quattro Canti’.
The historic city of Palermo is divided into four quarters (as seen on the right hand image). Kalsa, one of the oldest, known for its renaissance architecture and grandeur, has been put at the forefront for redevelopment and investment in Palermo.The first signs of gentrification can be seen here with much of the restoration and regeneration of the area being directed towards restoring its prestige. High end residential apartments have been commissioned and restoration to the ample palazzos is occurring to restore them to their former opulence. Ironically, its arabic name adopted during arabic rule ‘Al-halisah’, translates as ‘the pure of chosen one’ as it is where the Arab emirs and their court lived.15
14. Vasta, Giorgio in OMA’s Palermo Atlas, p. 285. 15. Leornardi, Maria Grazia, Il progetto della memoria: Casi e strategie di
progettazione architettonica e ambientale per la valorizzazione del patrimonio storico monumentale. (Rome: Gangemi Editore Spa, 2012).
16. We Are Palermo, Palermo Street Markets (30th July, 2017). https:// wearepalermo.com/news/historic-palermo-street-markets/ 17. Schiro, Samuele, Palermo Viva (30th May, 2013). Piazza Caracciolo. Available: http://www.palermoviva.it/una-via-al-giorno-piazza-caracciolo/. Last accessed 3rd December, 2018.
It is home to one of the three traditional markets found in the city which are and remain a dominant part of Palermian life and one of the oldest traditions of Sicilian history which remain uninterrupted by modern life [clips of these spaces can be viewed in the video]. The word “Vucciria” to the Palmerians, means confusion, whilst deriving from the word Bucceria taken from the french word boucherie as the markets original purpose was a slaughterhouse and the sale of meat.17 Also present in Capo and Ballaro, the markets lie at the very heart of neglected neighborhoods.16
‘exposition’ / quattro canti: within the city walls
Comparatively, the thesis situates itself in the neighbouring district of Castellamarre, specifically the neighbourhood of Vucciria. Compared to the rational layout of Kalsa,Vucciria’s tight meandering streets were built along the old lines of the river. Its chaotic urban planning is reflective of the culture and day to day activity which occurs there.
‘exposition’ / piazza garraffello & vucciria
A ‘Field of Performance’ hinged from Piazza Garraffello characterised by a network of dysfunctional piazzas.
Working into the heart of the historic quarter of Vucciria, one is greeted by Piazza Garraffello: the heart of the Vucciria; an ignorant icon of the town divided between the people and the champions for reconstruction. Despite the neglect and the derelict surrounding buildings the piazza is still in use throughout the day and night it could also be regarded as one of the most expressive, soulful and theatrical sites in the historic centre (see images on page xiv). The thesis has grown out of an initial exploration of the Piazza and has since grown to work within an extended ‘field of performance’, the regions within which are set out over leaf.
Piazza Garraffello Piazza Appalto Piazza Seligio Loggia dei Catalani Palazzo Lo Mazzarino-Merlo Palazzo Rammacca - “The Durex Tower” 07. Palazzo ducca della Grazia 08. Chiesa di S.Eligio 09. Mechanic 10. Chiesa di S.Andrea 11. Spanish Cultural Institution 01. 02. 03. 04. 05. 06.
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figure 17. One of three ‘fields of performance that constitutes a working territory across Vucciria.
‘exposition’ / piazza garrafello & vucciria
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theatrum mundi Composite propositional planometric drawing relating thesis at a bcity to world scale.
‘blocking’ [brief three act (II)]
The process of arranging moves to be made by the actors during the play. Positions at the start of scenes are noted, as are all movements around the stage It must be described in minute detail, but simple enough to enable anyone to read and understand it.
‘blocking’ / fragments of performative practice
The transient nature of these ‘works’ are continuously allowing spaces to transform and perform through everyday practices.
figure 19. Graffitied door to construction site of Piazza Garraffello.
The discontent of the people of Palermo is manifesting itself as a new layer of the urban fabric of the city. An emerging practice of ‘low-arts’ is materialising which expresses the evident impatience and animosity over the current climate and once again mis-prioritised investments of the state. It it materialising in the form of graffiti, film, performance and installation inscribed on every wall, performed in its formerly prestigious buildings, expressed from any surface, exhibition and local business available. Created by both individuals and more organised platforms these ‘acts’ play on the power that art has to sensitise people creating a dialogue between the creative and cultural ecosystem stakeholder expressing the urgent need for change.18 Works are often politically charged, emphasise discrepancies between the environment and its resources, plead for regenerating territory and appeal for innovation of policies. They express an overall desperation for healing cultural fractures. The project began by exploring two protagonists that epitomise the current situation and feeling in Palermo with specificity to Vucciria. These specific fragments of ‘low art’ gesture towards a much bigger movement upon which the thesis is built.
18. ALAB (Associazione Liberi Artigiani-Artisti Balarm), Association Marketing Pamphlet, (Self Published, 2018).
‘blocking’
‘found’ fragment: Uwe Jaentsch 14
Uwe Jaentsch: an Austrian protagon[art]ist in residence.
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figure 20. Uwe in occupancy of the Palazzo Lo Mazzarino Merlo.
Someone who consolidates this demand for change is Austrian artist Uwe Jaentsch and partner Costanza Lanza di Scalea (shown throughout the thesis video) who, while not native to Palermo, spent 19 years living in one of the abandoned palazzos in Piazza Garraffello in Vucciria with great respect and appreciation for the locals and actively participated in the concern for the future of the area becoming known as the self-elected guardians for Vucciria.19 Jaentsch’s work fights degradation with art. He has become synonymous with his brash, yet poignant site- specific pieces that aim to preserve the beauty and values of that around them, attracting much public attention.20
“Officially I am not here, I am the stranger who feeds the myths of the city. Uwe will be a timeless fairy tale for the children of the historic centre” - Uwe Jaentsch “Ufficialmente io non sono qui, sono lo straniero che alimenta i miti della città. Uwe sarà una fiaba senza tempo per i bambini del centro storico.” 21
Vucciria, Uwe e il palazzo di preservativi A piazza Garraffello la Durex Tropic Tower.
20. Frangiamore, Claudia, Reveloart (30th May, 2013). Uwe a Palermo. Available: http://www.revolart.it/uwe-a-palermo/. Last accessed 1st November, 2018. 21. Uwe Jaentsch in Chifari, Roberto, Corriere del Mezzogiorno (16th April 2018). Uwe Jaentsch “sfrattato” dalla sua Vucciria: Dico addio dopo 19 anni. 22. Nicolosi, Eugenia, Meridio News: Edizione Palermo (10th May 2015). Uwe ‘espugna’ la Loggia dei Catalani: Vero atto vandalico e dimenticare la storia.
‘blocking’ / uwe the protagon[art]ist
19. Maida, Desiree, Meridio News: Edizione Palermo (5th December 2016).
One example of this occurs on the site in which he resides. What has become a popular tourist attraction, there is a general assumption that the extreme disrepair visible here is as a result of WWII bombing sustained in 1943. However, photographic evidence shows these buildings still intact in 1980. The state prefers the assumption is believed to obscure the real reason for the damage - decades of neglect. In response Jaenstch produced a work of graffitied roses and 1943 fountain to ironically represent “The beauty of the lie” to oppose the “lies now crystallised in reality”, which are told to citizens and tourists.22
‘intermezzo
uwe in piazza garraffello
figure 21 & 22. Artist Uwe Jaentsch atop of Palazzo Lo Mazzarino-Merlo & Loggia dei Catalai (right).
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In 2018 the couple were served with an eviction notice by the city in order for construction to begin on the palazzo they was residing and adjacenet piazza garrafello. In response he opened the doors to his home and through exhibition works, ‘Bancomat’, and his ‘museum of authenticity’ set up in the piazza, he openly denounced and exposed the proposed development for its misguided priorities and questionably funded investments.The instalments wanted to create a movement for promoting an economic autonomy of the neighbourhood. He stated “We want the buildings to be restored but we do not agree with the arrangements.We want transparency from this operation.”23 This again is an indication of the state disregarding the current situation in favour of their ideal.The building of these lavish apartments, attainable to only a certain demographic, are essentially the 21st century re-implementation of the ‘palazzo’.
sfrattato dalla Vucciria: “Amo Palermo ma torno all’estero”.
‘intermezzo’ / uwe in piazza garraffello
23. Raccuglia, Federica, Si24.it (16th April, 2018). Uwe Jaentsch,
found fragment: masbedo / ‘intermezzo’ 18
figure 23. The Masbedo ‘Videomobile’ installed in Palermo.
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Cinema, was and still is, a protagonist for Palermo offering a freedom to explore themes that were either being suppressed or faced in reality.
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The second protagonist who has been influential in this field are Masbedo, an artistic duo from Milan who express themselves through the various languages of video, including performance, theatre, installation, photography and cinema. Recently they were invited to Manifesta 12 in Palermo to realise a series of projects. One project which has contributed to the programme of the thesis is the ‘Videomobile’. An old 1970s OM van transformed into a ‘video wagon’ to visit places of the cinema of the past, to investigate Sicilian society and the history of the Palermo area. Its significance lies in both the action of what it is doing as much as what was being performed and projected on the van. This project forms one of many examples where locations which used to perform exclusively for the elite and have since been abandoned are being allowed to perform once again but this this time, for the people.
An exploration of a nomadic cinematic screen: the ‘v’deonobile.’
masbedo in palermo 20
The projections themselves again have an underlying theme of exposing the truth. They take films which expose the dynamics of power and the socio-cultural changes disguised in Palermo’s present, paying particular attention to themes such as the sense of belonging and faith in utopias. A collection of works revived for the Videomobile included some by Sicilian director Vittorio de Seta born in 1923 who underwent the peak of his career during the facist regime. He chose to document the world of the humblest workers, fishermen, farmers and miners. As a result, his work was continuously suspected of concealing a hidden agenda in favour of “communist” subversive societies and his films were removed from the theatres. Unfortunately, this continued oppression of the local people by those in charge remains ongoing with the underlying influence of mafian enterprises still ongoing.
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Images of the “Videomobile in various locations across Palermo.
masbedo in palermo / ‘intermezzo’
figures 24 - 27.
chasing authentiCITY
‘blocking’
figure 28 & 29. Artist Uwe Jaentsch’s work on the remenance of Piazza Garreffello.
While these fragments present professional platforms at work this medium of low arts has become synonymous with every Palermian street corner, all driven by the same agenda, exposing concealed truths and restoring a city suitable for the people who live there which includes an reappropriation of Palermos grand historic buildings that stand in various states of disrepair. These ‘acts’, for a time considered as vandalism, are beginning to perform as an act of preservation attracting much attention for taking a closer look at the city. The thesis film tries to encapsulate the drive that people are feeling to take back their city and all the places that have been out of bounds to them for so long whilst showcasing the affect these gestures are having on the city.These works present a performance art intrinsically distant from the traditionally high Italian arts Palermo has been striving for, instead showcasing another example of art remaining an act for the people. The ephemeral nature of these works are continuously allowing spaces to transform and perform through everyday practice bringing a new layer of theatricality to the city. Palermo is, for the first time since the era of the princes, a city on stage. Subsequently, a refiguration of the privatepublic relations has occurred. Formerly private spaces of the palazzi are becoming public piazzas bringing social performance into the domestic realm, making new public palaces in which publicity is performed and this is where our thesis takes focus. chasing authentiCITY / ‘blocking’
‘blocking’: act I
drawing room(s)
“Dal 1999 la piazza Garraffello e alimentata dalle opere e istallazioni di UWE, protette dal popolo indigeno ed amate da quello internazionale.” 24
The Drawing Rooms, undertaken during the first semester, were driven by the agendas presented by the protagonists and their tectonics the first iteration of transforming this new wave of performativity into an architectural language (see following page.). Piazza Garraffello was chosen to continue the thesis within, as it represents one of the best microcosms of what is occurring across the city as a whole.
“Since 1999 the Piazza Garraffello is powered by the works and installations of Uwe, protected by the indigenous people and loved by the international people.” The introductory scheme for the thesis aims to provide a permanent residence for Uwe and Costanza, following their evictionm whereby the second floor of the existing building will offer programmatic opportunities for further art practice and a continuation of his ‘open door’ installations and interaction with the public. To compliment this interactive workspace, a gallery space wias house his ‘Palermo Icone’ collection (featured overleaf) as an inaugural exhibition. This collection of unique works is comprised of twenty-six portraits, that aim to immortalise the last traders of the ancient market; a human heritage that is disappearing; swallowed up by an increasingly destructive and devastating globalisation. The public will be offered orchestrated glimpses into the private domestic accommodation below that is accessible via a private stair to the rear of the workspace above.
24. Jaentsch, U and Lanza di Scalea, C, Piazza Garraffello Inc. in Uwe Jentsch [Archivio della Bellezza di Fregare].
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figure 30. A curation of domesticity and performance based art practice as typology
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axis mundi Composite propositional drawing relating proposal at to a body to world scale.
axis
As the thesis specifically explores how new spaces of performance, and in turn new performative practices, might start to re-make the city creating a drawing room in collaboration with another creative, artist Uwe Jaenstch, immediately prompts the opportunity for multifaceted design approaches to be developed. Re-evaluating the dynamics of power has also become a recurring theme.
figure 32.
The screenwriter in residence of the drawing room.
‘blocking’: act I
drawing room(s)
The second drawing room situated on the same site, looked at the dynamic medium of film as a method to discuss, explore and reflect on the challenges and opportunities for Palermo.The practice of film making has shifted, it no longer has the obligation of a purely formal practice, now often seen integrated with other disciplines such as live performance or music.The drawing room facilitating a space where these new cross-disciplinary acts could be developed by Masbedo, explored and shared in order to raise awareness for the city and its needs.
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Both these selected parties have built a platform to support the local people from.Whilst both having the autonomy to leave the city behind them, their belief that change is owed to the local people continues to inspire and so they remain committed to the city. The final programme for the thesis was derived from this desire to provide the local community with a more consolidated platform to have their say beyond the inscriptions of street walls.
The programme for the institution comprises of a broadcasting and radio studio, completely open to the public both architecturally and programmatically and situated on Piazza S.Eligio, in direct relation to Piazza Garrafello.
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axis mundi Composite propositional drawing relating proposal at to a body to world scale.
“An itinerary for citizens and tourists to discover what is truly authentic, a direct expression of personal research and the sensitivity of those who have thought and realised it.” 26 The choice to site the project in Garrafello goes further than the works of Jaenstch. Having established the site was not subject to the bombings of WWII, understanding the historic and cultural significance of the site helps explain why the state saw it necessary to either fabricate a lie or simply choose not to correct the common misconception regarding the reason for the current state of the site.
Castellammare district from Kalsa (see Hortus Mundi & p. xx of this report). The piazza is an important point of passage with a number of armatures stemming from the square offering connections to the sea front, the Via Vittorio and deeper Vucciria and its subsequent piazza’s. In 1591, the fountain was installed, embellished with inscriptions by the poet Antonio Veneziano (see p.vi) The convergence of the historical market together with the main commercial activities and the proximity to the port meant that the square became a crucial point of exchange and urban economy.
Now unoccupied and decaying on three of its four sides, at one time it was home to princes and the piazza one of the most historically significant places in Vucciria. Had these spaces been suited to the local people they would very likely have maintained From the 16th C the square was their use. among the most fascinating in the city. Many wealthy families chose it for their The square is located on an East-West homes, transforming former loggias of axis between La Cala Bay and Via merchants into noble palaces. Like the Roma, anchored to the South by Via rest of Palermo, these buildings have Vittorio Emanuele - which divides the been re-inhabited and re-programmed
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again and again. Palazzo Lo-Mazzarino Merlo (05 on p. 7) to the South, was previously an indulgent aristocratic residence before it was home to Uwe and Costanza. Palazzo Rammacca (06 on p. 7) to the West, now informally known as the ‘Durex Tower’, is former residence to prince Gravina di Rammacca and in the 16th C provided offices to the city’s first public bank and one of the first in Europe. Le Loggia dei Catalani (04 on p.7) to the North, was a former residential building turned foreign trade headquarters.To the east, Palazzo Sperlinga went from princes home to famous hotel restaurant in 1925.27
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Despite the vastness of this neglect, the piazza remains a notable location day and night and has come to be regarded as one of the most expressive, soulful and theatrical sites in the historic centre. The video aims to capture the different iterations of the site at different times of the day as well as past events and uses. However, work is currently underway for Palazzo LoMazzarino Merlo to be turned into luxury apartments. Again this is an indication of a lack of understanding or ignorance to what the city currently needs, with the Municipality of Palermo yet again enforcing ideals on the city.
and the top down approach they are going about it cemented our decision to work with this site to consider an alternate method of designing driven from the bottom up. Our scheme is anchored in promoting the existing value of the site and addressing the current and ongoing needs of the local people and the city. To do this, the architectonic language used is as important as the program proposals surrounding themes of performative practice.
Understanding the past and present priorities of the site is imperative to the thesis and forming a proposal that works on and with the site and its surrounding area. Given the states push to re-invigorate the area
26. ALAB (Associazione Liberi Artigiani-Artisti Balarm), Association Marketing Pamphlet, (Self Published, 2018). 27. Raimondi, Licia, Live Sicilia (11th May, 2017). Piazza Garraffello si rifa il look con un progetto pubblico-privato. Available: https://livesicilia.it/2017/05/11/ piazza-garraffello-si-rifa-il-look-con-un-progetto-pubblico-privato_852786/. Last accessed 3rd December, 2018.
palermo / the ‘artist’ in palemro
There is also an effort to begin the restoration of the other derelict surrounding buildings however planning law and ownership is complicating the matter. The overall aim to turn this area into an upmarket tourist attraction.
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enquiry / thesis fragment(s)
privacy
—paper, piazza, palazzo—
publicity
Collating all the research presented until now the thesis can be summarised within three thematic fragments which have individually and collectively informed the project and its development.Together they build a holistic understanding of the narrative and the resultant design and its programme.
Uwe distributing non-fabricated information to tourists from his ‘Bancomat’ for a month and a half.
1. Performative Practice and the Protagonist: The volatile nature of the re-appropriations have turned Palermo into an ever performing and transforming space.The theatricality of this has transformed Palermo, yet again, into a city on stage.The proscenium arch of what differentiates performer and spectator has been re-figured and we now find ourselves on both sides of the arch, performing both roles at different moments across the city.
3. Papyrus: The built environment in Palermo cannot be defined by a single time period. Each building is an amalgamation of era, power and priority. Now, confusion over its purpose as a city and the years of neglect have left behind a lost landscape. Paper is representative of the transient nature of the cities past and the ephemeral nature of how the city can be re-appropriated through careful strategy to present a new way of mechanising the city.
To what extent can the values and physicalities of performative practice be re-evaluated? Can the mask, rostra*, screen and cycloramas* be re-figured to the extent they become a tectonic language that integrates itself with the existing architecture and is able to propose a more viable inhabitance of the city?
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figure 35.
2. Piazza/Palazzo and the Found Environment: Palermo’s palazzos reflect a bold experimentation of bringing high culture to a troubled community.The piazza framed the grandeur and untouchability of the residents.The new interventions make a spectacle of the flamboyant pageantry making these spaces publicly accessible.
*Rostra: A moveable platform *Cyclorama: A large piece of white fabric tensioned on 2 or more sides which covers the back wall of a stage.
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enquiry / thesis fragment(s)
‘gesture’ ` [brief three act (II)]
The physical movement of a character during a play. Gesture is used to reveal character, and may include facial expressions as well as movements of other parts of an actor’s body.
Practicing an architectural language that is consistent in proposition and thinking.
emerging practice(s) The thesis called for a very specific architectonic language to be developed both reflective and unifying of the current and evolving environment in Vucciria. This culminated into a language of screens, masks and meshes each with their own derivative from both the city and testings throughout the year. The methodology used for development can be broken down into the following processes: Firstly, the materiality of paper was chosen, combined with hatch and surface changes, to be
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representative of the undefinability of the found environment in Palermo which is made up of an amalgamation of overlapping layers of ideologies, agendas and epochs rather than justifiable to a particular moment in time. Layering and folding was used as process and technique. This allowed for historic surface and acted upon surface to be regarded as one rather than as disparate layers as the way they are converging is they are becoming inseparable. The processes of folding and
layering became key to exploring the re-figuration of public-private relations. Folding internalised the public spaces of the piazzas bringing their activities into the private realm and vice versa. You no longer see spaces bounded by interiors and exteriors rather a continuous sequence of totally accessible urban space. An unintentional result of testing and working within this language was the relationship between the work itself and the way in which it was represented.The architectonic language being developed as part of the propositional work also
became reflective in our methods of representation across. This opened up questions of scalability and producing a language suitable for applying to the city at 1:1000 to the body at 1:1. Hence why it was necessary to present the final project across a variety of scales, from the fragment to the whole with similar components visible across scales.
figure 36. Creating a ‘tectonic’ language through the making of Hortus Mundi that is consistent in proposition and thinking.
Adapting components often associated with the theatre and modes of performance
performative infrastructure
Other influences from the city which contributed to the architectonic language were the precarious structures and restraints scattered around the city to act as temporary supports for the decomposing urban grain. Instead, years later, these still exist in the form of steel cabling and bracing, bricked up entire holes where facades used to be and blocked renaissance window frames.These implementations have been applied to any building irrelevant of its social status and as a result provided another layer of theatricality to the city. Where every building surface is now transient, these supports start to channel stage trusses, lighting rigs an support wires. Yet again adding to the notion of city as stage. The interiors of Adolf Loos and the relationship between publicity and privacy as described by Beatriz Colomina were considered in the way “architecture is not simply a platform that accommodates the viewing subject. It is a viewing mechanism that produces the subject. It precedes and frames its occupant.” 28 Lastly, the extent of the city’s performativity were extrapolated. If the fundamentals of public and private, interior and exterior, palazzo pizza are re-figuring, so to is the differentiation of ‘performer’ and‘spectator’ in the city.This calls for an architecture that is less definable and formalised than conventional parts. Instead, adapting components often associated with the theatre and modes of performance, like masks, rostras and cycloramas, seemed more appropriate and inkeeping with the found environment and current occurances with their ability to move and screen and change.
28. Colomina, Beatriz, ‘Intimacy and Spectacle: The Interiors of Adolf Loos’ in AA Files, No. 20 (Autumn 1990), p 8.
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figure 37. Intricate temporary support infrastructure , Via Loggia.
performative infrastructure / ‘gesture’
“ The world (we were implying) was a theatre
and we were at once actors and audience.
�
drawing room(s) exhibition A theatrical arrangement of drawings, models and film produced and curated to invoke performative and tectonic notions as a public display of the evolving thesis.
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A carefully curated physical manifestation of a productive, conceptual framework.
matthew gallery exhibition / ‘gesture’
The following pages look at how these methodologies have materialised within the various outputs of the thesis and in turn contributed to the final design.
Photographs from Drawing Room(s) Exhibition (November 2018).
matthew gallery exhibition / ‘gesture’
Layering and framing, and folding and cutting, holds a presence in the installed exhibitions through both the making process as much as methods of curation. Similar processes being tested across different scales siumltaneously. In the Matthew Gallery exhibition, the process of painting these frames can be seen as reminiscent of the process of graffitiing, animating portions of a surface to represent or re-enforce a message as motif.
figures 39 & 40.
A distinctly theatrical medium and a sources for all material within the design report.
cinematic thesis performance 48
The video operated as an exploratory tool as much as an explanatory one. The double screens and playful performative nature of its production, are another example of representation becoming as relevant to the content. Its narrative not only exposes the range of theatricality in the city, paralleling the formal traditional mode of performance with the everyday unscripted events occurring across the city. Additionally how the existing situation has generated our working processes and thesis outputs later translated into the final programme is compared. Furthermore, the appropriateness of paper in relation to these conditions is identified. By representing the videos in parallel, to be played in unison to the same soundtrack, sometimes converging and other times diverging becomes reminiscent of the supportive and paradoxical occurrence present in Vucciria. As a representation of the duality of the ‘high’ and ‘low’ arts of the city and of the North & South, the scenes are scored to a cut of Giuseppe Verdi’s grand opera ‘Les Vêpres Siciliennes’ and one of Jaentsch’s vide works.
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Still images taken from various scenes of the films.
cinematic thesis performance / ‘mis-en-scéne’
figures 41-44.
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hortus mundi / ‘gesture’
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Through the ‘act’ of folding in and out ‘interior’ courtyards and ‘external’ piazzas and the series of ‘screens’ explores potential palazzo/piazza relationships and their positions within the city.
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figure 45. Hortus Mundi: a thetic understanding of landscape as territory; as theatre; and as tectonic.
The Hortus Mundi, again explored how folding the ‘interior rooms’ of courtyards and atriums out and the piazza’s in, a reversal of what is regarded as interior and exterior can begin to be imagined. Contextualising the urban sprawl of the open spaces also initiated a discussion in how certain urban moves, in specific locations, might re-make parts of the city and even intervene in the wider city scale. The HM also reiterate this difference in the urban fabric between Kalsa and Castellammare. Selecting only a few key routes in both districts and their surrounding buildings the chaos versus the logic can be seen (left of drawing vs bottom right). HM voids the massing of the city and reflects on the lost landscape. Being able to see through from one to the other enquires for a new perspective on the city and walking between the two allows considers how one may be regarded in relation to the other. The HM was also presented as 2 ‘screens’, the spectator is able to engage and inhabit with these screens by walking between them. They are also on wheels indicative of a ‘truck’* in a theatre performance. In this way they can be viewed separately or together.While the drawing is 1:1000 the stands presents a 1:1, the presence of bringing multiple scales together under the same thematic umbrella began to test how theatrical elements can be manipulated for different architectural uses.
*Truck: A wheeled platform on which a scene or part of a scene is built to facilitate scene changing.
‘gesture’
fragmented papyral components 52
Geometry, reciprocal detail and additive forms become the intense fabric of ‘folded paper’ contrasting with the constructed emptiness of ‘landscape’.29
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figure 46. Exploring papyral language to create architectural components.
To begin to translate and exercise the architectural tectonic language of layering and folding that was developed through the propositional exploration of the drawing room(s) into a network of interventions across Vucciria; the methodology continued to pursue the sites, fields and territories identified previously to test a series of propositional papyrus fragment(s). The aim here was to frame thetic architectural ‘strategies’ and ‘elements’ that are brought into a propositional, thematic dialogue through the continually evolving representational and linguistic conditions that the thesis is concerned with.Through the resolution of these fragmented components, the scheme started to establish a programme and the nature of intervention necessary for the project.
30. French, C and Mitsoula, M, City Fragments: Palermo Institutions, Project Brief, ESALA, p. 25.
fragmented papyral components / ‘gesture’
29. Salter, Peter, Peter Salter: Drawing Walmer Yard, (London: Piano Nobile, 2016), p. 21.
Where the drawing room(s) are concerned with conditions of interiority, through the carefully calibrated sequencing of apertures, spaces and interfaces, the developing institutional components started to become largely public.They began to accommodate residents, the local community and visiting tourists. As such, the networking of their spaces is now more complex and their interfaces more varied and diffuse.Their territories are more difficult to determine, but are something that we tested and re-imagined through the making of papyral maquettes and laterly 1:50 components.30
*Mask: To hide: an actor(s) masks another when he stands in front of them and prevents the audience from seeing them. Also a noun: fabric hiding a row of lanterns hung above the stage. The use of theatrical terminology is seen throughout the folio and pamphlet.
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figure 47. Exploded isomeric drawing illustrating the layers of the mask.
The tectonic of the drawings rooms developed the existing facade and proposed a facade system which, through an extension of the existing openings, creates a habitable frame for performance. A series of lightweight steel layers and cabling combined to create a mask that partially veils the existing facade. Where masking also has connotations with concealing; protecting; emphasising and obscuring, questions of the significance of what side of the mask you are on and the transparency of this mask were raised.
31. Flusser, Vilem, Gesutures, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014), p. 93.
introduction to a language of the ‘mask’ / ‘gesture’
“A mask should not be regarded as a mask itself but as a function within a system, as a gesture of unmasking [. . .] in such a gesture, the system is masked so it can itself be unmasked in turn.” 31
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The second drawing room considered a new facade which cascaded to form a veil over the existing, it consists of panels which open independently revealing to the piazza the activity occurring internally, and in reversal an unobstructed view to outside.
How different activities reveal themselves independently with users of the piazza and the building find themselves as performer and spectator to each other was taken forward to the final design.
figure 48. Proposed street elevation of Loggia dei Catalani (see existing design folio, survey drawing 003 & 004)
introduction to a language of the ‘curtain’ / ‘gesture’
‘repertory’ [brief three act (II)]
A system of producing plays in which a company of actors is assembled to stage a number of plays during a specific period of time.The repertory company included actors, each of whom played roles in several plays throughout a theatrical season.
sustainable programme & typology / ‘repertory’
The theatre engages with questions of territory; the Theatrum Mundi is the world performed through and made by the space of performance. A key driver for the thesis is creating a more inhabitable environment for the people of Vucciria.The thesis therefore does not reach a conclusion, rather explores a variety of parameters which could be set up to remake this part of the city that work across a variety of scales. These parameters have been broken down into ‘acts’, ‘moves’ and ‘gestures’ within the thematic field of performative practice.
1. Sustainability through programme
The institution provides open access studios and working space available to anyone who wants to use them. For so long the local people have had no platform to voice their opinions and be involved in the change occurring to the local area beyond beyond inscribing it on the walls. This formalised platform allows for a reversal of the dynamics of power, providing a space for people to Sustainability across all these scales come together. therefore had to be considered if the extent of vacant buildings is to slowly diminish. The thesis makes the first 2. Sustainability through building type iteration into exploring this through testings and the final proposal leaving The project takes a variety of plots, in the explorations open ending for various states and proposes a variety further development into this very of contractions. When considered current problem in the historic centre together, much more than the of Palermo. immediate vicinity can be positively impacted. The project takes one disused plot (see no 1) and proposes a new linking construction here between the drawing rooms and the institution. In this way disparate plots of non-spaces, found in abundance in Palermo, can be opened up creating an adjoining city scape.
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The primary volume of the institution takes an existing building and retains its key elements of domesticity like its facades, balconies and height in order to maintain the inherent domesticity of the local area and culture. Only at a few carefully chosen moments does it choose to face off to the cathedral present in its proximity calling out the unnecessary extravengance of the ‘theatrical buildings’ invested in in Palermo. The extent of unfinished buildings in Palermo could easily allow for a similar balance of retention versus demolition in order to improve the area as a whole. A proposal at the Western end of the site takes the Chiesa di S.Eligio and with very few amendments to the existing structure it opens the closed off site back up to the public by proposing theatre spaces which inhabit the ruins and can be accessed from the street without the exclusivity of the theatre massimo and is designed to become an extension of the piazza. In a similar way to the Theatro Garibalid* a light weight timber structure can be erected with the removal of the floor plates but the retention of the surrounding facades.
sustainable fields & territories / ‘repertory’
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Using a series of propositional papyral fragment(s) to frame thetic architectural ‘strategies’ and ‘elements’
3. City wide sustainability The thesis aimed to take a field condition and produce a transferrable architectonic language while still culminating in site specific building utilising local difference while maintaining overall coherence. Something that the state has yet to realise when implementing their unrealistic ideals “is that stitching new construction into the fabric of the existing city is relevant. It is a matter of recognising that the city is not a stable field, but as it has been produced as multiple agents, working over time, it can never be controlled as a totallity.” 33 The Theatrum Mundi model and drawing starts makes the first steps into how this could be achieved. With high levels of specificity yet, leaving the specifics of use and program to establish themselves over time to allow the intervention of multiple agents over the life of the city. Treating the district of Castellemmare as an extended site for the thesis to intervene, the project begins to identify ‘fields of performance’ as territories for intervention. These territories are established and anchored through the existing
piazzas and the dualities of interior and exterior spaces. Each identifies existing historic and abandoned architectural fabric as nodes for re-development that can be folded into a strategy for a performing city. In this way; “the form of these institutions does not attempt to represent,metaphorically,the new conditions of the institution, nor does it attempt to directly instigate new ways of thinking or behaving. Instead, by forming the institution within a directed field condition, connected to the city or a landscape, a space is left for the tactical improvisations of future users.” 34
“An articulation of ‘site-writing’ as a spatial practice in which the writer both interprets and performs, endeavouring to fashion an architecture.” 32
figure 50.
32. Williams, D, ‘Performing Palermo: Protests Against Forgetting’. 33. Allen, Stan, Field Conditions Revisited. (Long Island City, NY: Stan Allen Architect, 2010), p. 21. 34. Allen, S, Field Conditions Revisited, p. 24.
sustainable building / ‘repertory’
1. Existing site with underused plot to rear and left. Piazza In front currently used as a car park.
2. Demolition of Site allows residential piazatta appalto behind temporarily a larder external space. Many children in the area could benefit from this often playing the tight alleyways haveing to stop for cars.
3. Excavation of basement is expected to take close to a year. Surrounding site can continue to be used in meantime.
4. Concrete ‘table’ construction to support proposed tower structure. Elevation from the ground provides useable space for organised activity in preperation for the pending building and shaded external space for the summer months.
5. Implementation of basement floors allows for joining of all surrounding piazzas.
6. Steel structure and removal of unwanted existing facades and addition of new facades. This ‘stage set’ is expected to be on site without much further progression for a while. During this time is it is expected the new structures will begin to be engulfed into the fabric of Vucciria through graffiti and other performative works.
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65 4. Sustainability through construction Given the construction situation in Palermo where building takes considerably longer due to investments being obtained over a longer time period and construction stopping each time funds run out, the project is considered in the stages in which it can be built and concurrently contribute to the city in the state of construction it is in. In this way the project doesn’t become just another construction site or skeleton of a building waiting for the next wave of investment.
sustainable building / ‘repertory’
7. Floor plates into construction
8.Floor plates into tower
3. Panels and Roofs allow the building to be water tight and begin to function
4. Components such as the library, pod, external stairs can be implemented at any time when money becomes available allowing for a continuously morphing and transforming building.
5. Masks as final iteration of construction become externalised agenda of place.
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67 Working in Vucciria assumes that the building will unavoidably be engulfed into the urban culture of the city very quickly and this is accounted for.The design itself is reflective of the urban landscape in Vucciria and the historic centre, an overlapping of intricacy and sophisticated detail combined with the occurrences of everyday living (explained further in the next section). The materials chosen, steel, masonry are presented to function as ephemeral as registers of process and change.
A re-interpretation of traditional piazza / pallazo relationships .
publicity / privacy ; between buildings 68
5. Local sustainability Through re-mechanising nodal points along the street the surrounding piazzas have, as a result, become an active part of the everyday life. These piazzas, which were originally built as a buffer zone between the upper class residents of the palazzo and everyone else, are now used as urban rooms forming a continuation of the interiority of the building bringing publicity into the domestic realm and vice versa. Territories become a lot harder to identify, between when publicity ad privacy, exterior and exterior, palazzo and piazza. Dissipating the hierarchy between buildings and space. This was further exaggerated in our scheme by making a central courtyard with piazzas at various levels throughout the building. Publicity remains dominant throughout the entire building with accessibility to different parts of the building assumed all throughout the day and night as well as carefully calibrated sequences of apertures, interfaces and spaces. While at ground floor engagement is dominant with the street scape, engagement with the surrounding buildings is encouraged in the same way you can see people have discussions across balconies, promoting the domesticity of the architecture. Circulation is externalised, removing the most dominant feature of the palazzo, the grand staircase and externalising it to allow it to become an integral feature of the design accessible to everyone, again eliminating its privateness and exclusivity. Furthermore , by disconnecting it from the building and precariously placing it it in the central courtyard it is treated like a stage prop, that can be moved about as necessary.
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figure 52. Inversion of the taditional ‘palazzo stair’.
publicity / privacy ; between buildings / ‘repertory’
6. Sustainability in design The masks operates by uniting
the streetscape, irrespective of the [Academic use only] program occurring behind it while staying relevant to the performative aspect of everyday life occurring in Vucciria, framing in the interior and exterior activity as much as each other whilst also contributing to various technical and environmental elements (its programmatic role is discussed further later).
In warmer climates like Palermo, completely shaded external areas are necessary. The orientation of spaces prevents direct sunlight entering south facing spaces making the most of north facing balconies while still being
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covered to be used when it rains. Ide al ly, these win dows should have insulated shutters that can be closed in the day and opened up at night. Every effort should be made to shade all the windows. A structure’s orientation greatly influ ences the impact of the sun and wind on the dwelling. Orienting the largest dimen sion of the build ing north and south can significantly reduce a building’s solar exposure. The internal courtyard, floor voids twisting panels, and external areas throughout the building ensures the continual flow of air up and through the building conserving the need for mechanical ventilation to the
broadcasting studios which generate a lot of heat due to the equipment. Acoustic linings are present in the rooms that require blocking from outside sound achieved through double doors into spaces and threshold pods. However, incepting with the agenda for the building these can equally be opened up to the street to incorporate the sounds of everyday activities into their performance.
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figure 53. Cross section DD through existing retained wall and proposed central staircase.
figures 54 & 55. Fragment detailed studies of proposed panelling system. [Academic use only]
publicity / privacy ; between buildings / ‘repertory’
[Academic use only]
figure 56. Proposed construction section (for specifications see design folio).
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7. Sustainable construction systems Concrete sandwich walls allow for a controlled thermal insulation furthered by continuous layer of insulation around the buildings envelope. This will allow the building to depend much less on expensive air conditioning overall making the building more energy efficient. Mechanical cooling burns a huge amount of energy in hot countries. Therefore insulation within the wall reduces the U-value and keeps the spaces cooler inside during the day.
In this way year round comfort can be achieved. allowing for passive heat gain in the winter.nContinuous insulation creates a higher insulation value, decreases temperature variations within the structure and increases energy savings. It absorbs and stores heat energy through thermal mass and provides an barrier between the interior and exterior of the building. Continuous insulation also solves the problem of thermal bridging. In hot climates, the use of slab edge insulation along with heat absorbing materials like cement, stone, and adobe products, can contribute to an energy efficient building.
sustainable constuction systems / ‘repertory’
‘denouement’ [brief three act (II)]
s the final outcome of the main complication in a play. Usually the denouement occurs after the climax (the turning point or “crisis”). It is sometimes referred to as the explanation or outcome of a drama that reveals all the secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot.
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final installation / ‘denouement’
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Establishing grounds for an institution, and presenting the tectonic language of the thesis.
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figure 57. Final curation for exhibition of thesis.
We aim to exhibit the institution through the method(s) in which the works have been created throughout the year, and the manner that they transcend a range of scale to present an architectural thesis coherent with its making. Layering and framing, and folding and cutting, held a continual presence in the installed exhibitions through methods of making and curation in earlier exhibitions of our work. Now, with a development of resolution to the thesis and its institution, we present the findings of a thinking through making that take on the language to an architectural proposition that performs for the city and the studio. From the lost landscape of the Hortus Mudi and its screens at a city scale to the spatial and material exploration of the 1:50 model, the project hope to work the reader through a performance of the social narratives, embedded practices and urban and architectural lanuage of the thesis.
[Academic use only]
A place where speech becomes writing. A place where speech can become “savage” and, by excaping rules and institutions, inscribe itself on the walls.”
Doesn’t this show that the disorder of the street engenders another kind of order? The urban space of the street is a place for talk, given over as much to the exchange of words and signs as it is to the exchange of things.
In the street and through the space it offers, appear appropriated places, realized in appropriated space-time.
The street serves as a meeting place (topos), for without it no other designated encounters are possible (cafes, theatres, halls). These places animate the street and are served by its animation, or they cease to exist. \
A final design manifests the aforementioned social, contextual and environmental conditions to produce an architecture with distinct elements that respond to the localised conditions of the site. It is the interaction of these elements that builds the language of the thesis in response to the spatial, programmatic. social conditions being dealt with. The design intends to encapsulate the energy of place, using well considered architecture and spatial formations to break down cultural and social barriers and challenging the states decisions with social agenda is at the heart of the design.
axis mundi
[Academic use only]
[Academic use only]
An ‘unfolding’ of the proposition and its Piazza(s) that promotes connectivity at street level.
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The ground floor is designed to open up the groundscape connecting the piazzas and streets through passageways indicative of those already in the area. Where theresholds begin between exterior and interior is dissipated at this level. The piazza paving is extended into the foyers up through all the external areas of the building maintaining a visual and material connection with the exterior with the inside at any height. +19.
[Academic use only]
PERFORMATIVE GROUNDSCAPE: COMPOSITE SITE PLAN & ELEVATIONS
[1:500]
[henri lefebvre]
This disorder is alive. It informs. It surprises.
The street is a place to play and learn. The street is a disorder. All the elements of urban life, which are fixed and redundant elsewhere, are free to fill the streets and through the streets flow to the centers, where they meet and interact, torn from their fixed abode.
In the street, a form of spontaneous theatre, I become spectacle and spectator, and sometimes an actor.
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axis mundi This principle elevation / section situates the scheme in its immediate urban context and illustrates how thetic ‘acts’ of ‘mask’, ‘screen’, ‘stage’ and ‘curtain’ play out.
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The building is envisaged as a series of filters and screens, exterior as well as interior. Its relation with the exterior is mediated by a series of patterns made of wire and perforated metal sheet that filter daylight and give the performers and spectators on the street and in the building varying moments of reveal.
[not to scale]
PALERMO INSTITUTION(S): - EXPLODED FRAGMENT STUDY - LONG SECTION / ELEVATION SS
The project works with the scale of domesticity, relating to the neighbouring constructions except with the height of the tower which becomes a landmark for Vucciria directly facing the adjacent cathedral.
PALERMO INSTITUTION(S): - EXPLODED FRAGMENT STUDY - LONG SECTION / ELEVATION LL
[not to scale]
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[Academic use only]
axis mundi Section LL reveals the way the ‘Broadcasting Tower’ meets the existing retained fabric and highlights the relationship of the two ‘new lined’ spaces of interiority in the newsroom and the library, across a newly formed exterior in the first floor ‘Piazza’ below.
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The ascent to the top of the building gradually accounts for an increment of natural light due to lighter construction an materiality moving from concrete to light birch. Additionally work and studio spaces are not present at these floors so the tolerance with light levels is greater. The ground floor presents a spacious foyer open to the immediate urban landscape while voids above allow glimses into internal spaces.
‘un’-folding To open: or spread out something that has been folded. If a situation or story unfolds, it develops or becomes clear to other people: As the plot unfolds, you gradually realise that your initial assumptions were wrong.
[un-folding: architectural practice] As an exploration through the practice of ‘thinking through making’ across a range of scales (see 1:200, 1:100 and 1:50 study models), the thesis has developed a language of ‘layering’ and ‘folding’ that has culminated in an architecture of performative ‘masks’,‘screens’ and ‘curtains’ that act in the following ways.
1. To Make Storng Visual Connections with the City & Existing Institution(s) 2. To Facilitate the Re-Inhabitation of Abanandoned Infrastructure 3. To Delineate Urban Sub-Centres / ‘Stages’ for Interogative Performance 4. To Create a Habitable Wall Construction(s) 5. To Provide Means of Natural Ventilation & Solar Shading
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proposed fragments of making / denouement
tectonic of the ‘mask’ / ‘denouement’
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INSTITUTION(S) : FIFTH FLOOR ROOFTOP BROADCAST (exploded assembly axonometric)
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‘ mask ’ To hide: an actor(s) masks another when he stands in front of them and prevents the audience from seeing them. Also a noun: fabric hiding a row of lanterns hung above the stage.
[mask: architectural element] Derived from a theatrical understanding of the term ‘mask’ this technique manifests as an architectural element that can be exploited in a similar way.Where masking also has connotations with concealing; protecting; emphasising and obscuring, in this sense the perforated steel mesh can be interpreted as a mask for the following architectural functions.
1. Concealing & Framing of ‘Scene’ for Roof-top Studio 2. Address of Relationship to Chisea di San Domenico 3. City Guesture as Catalyst of Informal Performance 4. Indication of Urban Sub-Centre
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87 Once one single mask has been turned , all of them become accessible as no-longer-masks, regardless of the way the hierarchy may look.35 Masks and meshes encompass all sides of the building designed as a series of filters and screens positioned in the façades that mediate between inside and out, laterally and top to bottom. Metaphorically, the mask represents the paradoxical actions of the State of Palermo. In the way the governing bodies wear a mask to maintain peace in the area and extrude hope and false promises the decisions and true agendas are only revealed behind teh mask within the confines of the private municipal ‘palaces’. In resistence, the mesh used in the ‘masks’ of this proposition ensure a continual level of permeability. Any occurrences behind the mask cannot be concealed, and the opportunity to be either side of the mask is always open. One can choose to be a spectator i.e. be a recipient of the decision or discussion occuring or a performer, involved in the decisions.This ‘unmasking’ allows a total inclusivity and voids the condition of hierachy, something inherently absent in Palermo.
Techincal, tectonic and material studies of proposed ‘mask’ fragments.
35. Flusser, Vilem, Gesutures, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014), p. 94.
tectonic of the ‘mask’ / ‘denouement’
figures 62 & 63.
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INSTITUTION(S) : FIFTH FLOOR ROOFTOP BROADCAST (exploded assembly axonometric)
‘ mask ’
1. Concealing & Framing of ‘Scene’ for Roof-top Studio 2. Address of Relationship to Chisea di San Domenico 3. City Guesture as Catalyst of Informal Performance 4. Indication of Urban Sub-Centre
Derived from a theatrical understanding of the term ‘mask’ this technique manifests as an architectural element that can be exploited in a similar way.Where masking also has connotations with concealing; protecting; emphasising and obscuring, in this sense the perforated steel mesh can be interpreted as a mask for the following architectural functions.
[mask: architectural element]
To hide: an actor(s) masks another when he stands in front of them and prevents the audience from seeing them. Also a noun: fabric hiding a row of lanterns hung above the stage.
fabricatio mundi Together, these drawings facilitate a ‘spatial’ and ‘material’ reading of the architectural language of the thesis .They begin to ‘unfold’ the tectonics of ‘layering’ and ‘folding’ through a range of thetic fragments that pertain towards a self perpetuating ‘re-making’ of Vucciria.
‘ screen ’
1. Creation of Threshold / Entry onto ‘Stage’ 2. Deliniation of ‘Stage Left’ or the ‘Wings’ 3. Provide Regulation Balustrade 4. Tectonic Programmatic Motif
Derived from a theatrical understanding of the term ‘screen’ this ‘act’ manifests as an architectural component in a variety of ways throughout the scheme. As a concealment of actor(s) onto ‘stage’ from the ‘wings’, the stair performs in the following ways.
[screen: architectural element]
A fixed or movable upright partition used to divide a room; provide concealment or privacy; or upon on which images and data are displayed.
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‘denouement’
silhouettes in the city
The amalgamation of layers with varying textures and surface.
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The institution refelcts the ambivalence of its setting. It addresses the structures of the past without concealing the force of its presence.36
figure 65 & 66.
These meshes across this top broadcasting studio produce a dynamic spatial condition which, like a film camera control the intensity of the natural light. 36. “Film Theatre Of Catalonia / Mateo Arquitectura”, Archdaily, 2019 <https:// www.archdaily.com/484303/film-theatre-of-catalonia-mateo-arquitectura> [Accessed 3 May 2019].
silhouettes in the city / ‘denouement’
The amalgamation of layers with varying textures and surface become emblematic of the layering of the urban grain in Vucciria and wider Palermo. These layers can continue to be added to and changed like the grafittied walls below or changing backdrop of a play. The intricacy at certain moments, despite the materials used not being of particularly high value, a combination of steel, wood and concrete, reflect the moments of high and low art overlapping as is continuously present in Vucciria.
1:50 spatial and material model study.
regio mundi Exploring how the intensity of the intervention of the institution through a re-scaling of the tectonic language established within our thesis, how it â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;actsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in different ways upon the city. In the old town, with very close relations between buildings, interaction must be mediated,
figure 68.
Proposed second floor plan (not to scale).
94 â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;denouementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
spatial relationship(s): between publicity & privacy
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95 Here, the extent of openess and publicity between spaces can be seen along with how the courtyard and palazzo stair situate themseles in relation to the internal spaces. viewing ‘pods or ‘theatre boxes’ delieneate thresholds between interior and exterior, publicity and privacy.They also function to hide structural supports within their buildups freeing up the floors from visible structural entities like columns .This is particularly present in the basement where they are sculpted around the structures they conceal.
Proposed third floor plan (not to scale).
spatial relationship(s): between publicity & privacy / ‘denouement’
figure 69.
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Inhabitable meshes provide intemedaite spaces between exterior and interior, public and private.
â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;denouementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
spatial relationship(s): bet ween publicity & privacy
figure 70 & 71. 1:50 spatial and material model study.
spatial relationship(s): between publicity & privacy / ‘denouement’
The mask components extrapolate both existing and proposed wall constructions to create habitable spaces behind the masks.The spaces that are provided in these ‘between’ spaces are utilised in a number of different ways to; extend the internal rooms; to provide circulation between floors; to provide external terracing .
tectonic of the ‘theatre box’ / ‘denouement’
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INSTITUTION(S) : THIRD FLOOR RADIO BROADCAST (exploded assembly axonometric)
‘ curtain ’ A hanging cloth: that conceals the stage from the view of the audience; rises or parts at the beginning and descends or closes between acts and at the end of a performance.
[curtain: architectural element] Derived from a theatrical understanding of the term ‘curtain’ this technique manifests as an architectural element that has exploited in a similar way. Draping a lightweight, perforated veil over the structure framing moments of performative practice, the ‘curtain’ also serves the following architectural functions.
1. Thermal Enclosure & Waterproofing 2. Creation of Shaded External Terrace 3. Acoustic Deflection to South Elevation 4. Solar Shading to South Elevation
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The top floor of the ‘Radio Wing’ opens up to a more tactile composition of bespoke timber rafters, which contain two intimate radio studios that are wrapped in dark sheet steel.The spectator is allowed to gaze through tall openings into the delicately lined ‘pods’ that are heavily insulated and lit through sculptural secondary rooflights.
figure 72 & 73. Exploded assembly & detailed drawings.
tectonic of the ‘theatre box’ / ‘denouement’
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INSTITUTION(S) : THIRD FLOOR RADIO BROADCAST (exploded assembly axonometric)
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fabricatio mundi A re-framing of theatrical ‘acts’ that articulate the developmental making of the proposed instituion. Each of the ‘acts’ explore notions of performance; publicity and privacy and have relationships with the city at an urban scale, the piazza at a local scale and with the body at a human scale.
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‘theatre box ’
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1. Thermal Enclosure & Waterproofing 2. Creation of Shaded External Terrace 3. Acoustic Deflection to South Elevation 4. Solar Shading to South Elevation
1. Material & Thermal Threshold 2. Provide Places for Observation 3. Give Additional Acoustic Insulation to Necessary Areas 4. Acts as Nodes for ‘Formal’ Scenes of Performance
Derived from a theatrical understanding of the term ‘box’ this theatrical element manifests as an architectural component that can be exploited in a similar way.The theatre box provides the opportunity to integrate the spectacle and connectivity in a way that denotes performance and threshold. In this way these ‘boxes’ make the following architectural ’gestures’.
[box: architectural element]
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Derived from a theatrical understanding of the term ‘curtain’ this technique manifests as an architectural element that has exploited in a similar way. Draping a lightweight, perforated veil over the structure framing moments of performative practice, the ‘curtain’ also serves the following architectural functions.
[curtain: architectural element]
A hanging cloth: that conceals the stage from the view of the audience; rises or parts at the beginning and descends or closes between acts and at the end of a performance.
Asmall, separated seating area in the auditorium or audience for a limited number of people for private viewing of a performance or event. Boxes are typically placed immediately to the front, side and above the level of the stage.
‘ curtain ’
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figure 75 to 77.
Internal spaces taken from the model. The performance space (left) and newsroom (above right) illustrate the extent of visibility and framing between spaces
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â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are only interconnected continual spaces, rooms, walls, terraces... Each space needs a different height... These spaces are connected so that ascent and descent are not only unnoticable , but at the same time functionalâ&#x20AC;? - Adolf Loos
spatial relationship(s): between publicity & privacy
spatial relationship(s): between publicity & privacy / ‘denouement’
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Princetown Architectural Press, 2009). Lynch, David, What Time Is This Place?, (Cambridge [USA]: MIT Press, 1972). Mackay, Jamie, Precarious Europe (14th September, 2014). Palermo is a Laboratory for the Precariat. Available: http://www.precariouseurope.com/ lives/palermo-laboratory-precariat. Last accessed 30th October, 2018. Maida, Desiree, Meridio News: Edizione Palermo (5th December 2016). Vucciria,
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Nicolosi, Eugenia, Meridio News: Edizione Palermo (10th May 2015). Uwe
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Longer page Sources for all sub-title imagery forused this withintodesign page be entered report. into this text box right here.
primary image page credits title
figure 1 - Chris French & Maria Mitsoula ft Lemon (Citrus Limonium) by Charles D’Orbigny (1849), City Fragments: Palermo Institutions - Studio Brief, September 2018. (Image modified by author) figure 2 - Roberto Lombino,‘Uwe e Costanza, da Piazza Garraffello, Vucciria, Palermo’. - Flickr, 24th December 2016, (Available: https:// www.flickr.com/photos/135176170@ N03/31325049014/ [Last accessed 1st May, 2019.]) figure 3 - Schwarz Plan, Site Plan & Figure Ground Plan of Palermo, (Available: https://schwarzplan.eu/en/product/ figure-ground-plan-site-plan-palermo/ [Last accessed 30th October, 2018.]). (Image modified by author) figure 4 - Photograph by Author(s) figure 5 - Roberto Lombino,‘Rovine di Poggioreale Vecchia (Sicilia)’. - Flickr, 24th December 2016, (Available: https:// www.flickr.com/photos/135176170@ N03/28831619980/ [Last accessed 1st
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May, 2019.]) figure(s) 7 to 10 Photographs by Author(s) figure 11 - Drawing by Author(s) figure 12 - Aerial Photograph sourced from Google Earth, edited by Author figure 13 - Drawing by Author(s) figure 14 - Photograph by Author(s) figure 15 - Gianfranco Spatola,‘Teatro Massimo’. - Flickr, 5th July 2013, (Available: https://www.flickr.com/ photos/39031376@N06/9249175730/ [Last accessed 1st May, 2019.]) figure 16 - Artaria Ferdinando,‘Pianta della Città di Palermo’. - ADE Books, (Available: https://pictures.abebooks. com/CPAULUSCH/22873380056.jpg [Last accessed 1st May, 2019.]) figure 17 & 18 - Drawing by Author(s) figure 19 - Photograph by Author(s)
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figure 20 - Luca Mancuso,‘Uwe’ in Uwe Ti Ama - Flickr, 29th December 2017, (Available: https://www.flickr.com/ photos/lucamancuso/35392325520/ in/album-72157690642032394/ [Last accessed 30th October, 2018.]) figure 21 - Luca Mancuso,‘Uwe’ in Uwe Ti Ama - Flickr, 29th December 2017, (Available: https://www.flickr.com/ photos/lucamancuso/28986513007/ in/album-72157690642032394/ [Last accessed 30th October, 2018.]) figure 22 - Luca Mancuso,‘Piazza Garraffello’ in Uwe Ti Ama - Flickr, 29th December 2017, (Available: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ lucamancuso/42363232830/in/ album-72157690642032394/ [Last accessed 30th October, 2018.]) figure(s) 23 to 27 - ‘Videomobile’ by Masbedo, (2018). (Available: http:// www.masbedo.org/videomobile/ [Last accessed 3rd December, 2018.]) figure(s) 28 & 29 - Photographs by Author(s)
figure(s) 30 to 34 - Drawings by Author(s)
figure(s) 67 to 69 - Drawings by Author(s)
figure 35 - Luca Mancuso,‘Uwe’ in Uwe Ti Ama - Flickr, 29th December 2017, (Available: https://www.flickr.com/ photos/lucamancuso/35392325520/ in/album-72157690642032394/ [Last accessed 30th October, 2018.])
figure(s) 70 & 71 - Photographs by Author(s)
figure(s) 36 to 40 - Photographs by Author(s) figure(s) 41 to 44 - Stills taken from ‘Cinematic Thesis Film’ by Author(s) figure(s) 45 & 46 - Photographs by Author(s) figure(s) 47 to 56 - Drawings by Author(s) figure 57 - Photograph by Author(s) figure(s) 58 to 62 - Drawings by Author(s) figure 63 - Photograph by Author(s) figure 64 - Drawing by Author(s) figure 65 & 66 - Photographs by Author(s)
figure(s) 72 to 74 - Drawings by Author(s)
Palermo is a city of pomp, performance and pageantry. It is home to the largest Opera House in Europe, the Teatro Massimo, built to celebrate the unification of Italy (Risorgimento). At its height, during the Belle Époque, the urban palazzi of the princes of the city – adorned with material that announced the wealth of an aristocracy at odds with a population in relative poverty – hosted extravagant balls and feasts (memorably described in Lampedusa’s The Leopard).
[2019]
CITY FRAGMENTS: PALERMO INSTITUTIONS
Today, the palazzi are in ruins, a result of profligacy, the bombings of WorldWar II and the abandonment of the old city. Theatres lie closed or in ruins. Despite increasing economic disparities, UNESCO funding and money deriving
*chris french *maria mitsoula
from the integration of the city into global real estate networks has resulted in only high-value restoration projects, spaces offlimits to many. The local response has been to reclaim the abandoned palaces; desolate buildings are being re-appropriated by agents motivated to expose the cultural fractures present in the city. These re-appropriations re-figure classical notions of publicity and privacy, piazza and palazzo, and performer and spectator, culminating in new public palaces composed of interiors where publicity is performed. The city has become a stage; a new era of affective theatricality is emerging. Performing La Vucciria proposes a performative tectonics of masks, curtains and veils. An Institution
for Television and Radio Broadcast in the heart of La Vucciria provides a platform for emerging creative practices, allowing them to be recognised and heard.