KELLY BUCZNIEWICZ design portfolio (m.arch)
university of detroit mercy school of architecture
contents studio
page 8 24 42 50
page 58 64 70 74
it's their funeral (m.arch thesis) udm chapel, univ. of detroit mercy glerl research labs, detroit river the digital image in space
professional sherwood studios - design intern jp warren interiors - design intern dichotomy student journal - staff 3d-modeling
page 78 88 96 106
excerpts historic structures report critical analysis: cranbrook phenomenology of the cemetery history and theory excerpts
studio page 8
prof. noah resnick (2017) it's their funeral (m.arch thesis)
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prof. stephen vogel (2016) udm chapel, univ. of detroit mercy
42
prof. emily kutil (2015) glerl research labs, detroit river
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prof. claudia bernascoli (2017) the digital image in space
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IT'S THEIR FUNERAL: M.ARCH THESIS professor: noah resnick masters of architecture program university of detroit mercy school of architecture
IT'S THEIR FUNERAL m.arch thesis the university of detroit mercy school of architecture THIS THESIS ADDRESSES THE INADEQUACIES OF FUNERAL SPACES FOR ACCOMMODATING THE MOURNING PROCESS AND OFFERS INSIGHT TOWARDS "POST-MODERN" FUNERARY SPACES.
IT'S THEIR FUNERAL: M.ARCH THESIS
This thesis addresses contemporary funeral spaces and their inadequacies for bereavement, as well as the question of who does the funeral space serve? Prehistorically, Neanderthals and Homo-Sapiens cared for their dead, and ancient civilizations went to great lengths to commemorate their losses.
Through a phenomenological process, the burial ground became the first centralized home to which we repeatedly returned. And so, space and landscape have been forever inextricably linked to rituals of grief and memorialization.
IT'S THEIR FUNERAL: M.ARCH THESIS
← Funeral spaces should accommodate large gatherings for eating with non-fixed seating. There should also be sanctuaries for solitary meditation or intimate conversation. Additionally, sights of nature and the changing seasons have marked effects on the mourning process.
If we fast forward millions of years, humanity’s center next becomes the town. Times were tough and survival was in the forefront, not just of ourselves but the continuity of society — and death came as a huge blow. People were once very integral to their social infrastructure: the blacksmith died, the town crier rang his bells and everybody dropped what they
were doing to join in the procession. The whole of the arrangements were made collectively and appropriated by the decedent’s overseers. Death was significant — the original "undertakers" evolved from cabinet makers simply because they marketed caskets to the community. The funeral was a whole town affair in which the members conceptually moved their neighbor from the realm of the living to realm of the dead and memory.
IT'S THEIR FUNERAL: M.ARCH THESIS
Moving on and through the modern era, America was formed and so was the funeral industry as we know it. This was triggered during the Civil War by Thomas Homes, who was a Union Doctor that modernized the embalming process that could send soldiers home to their families. As more and more freelance embalmers pitched tents on the battlefield, American funeral services emerged characterized by medicalization and legality. However, death is not a medical state of the body — it is an absent state since there is no human
left to diagnose: death leaves our loved ones and enters our own lives through this profound loss. ...As the Civil War raged on in America, the Victorian era of architecture was largely established and seeping societal influence into the realm of architecture. The war brought unprecedented death to the country — it was so emotionally overwhelming that we regimented social deprivation. Death was locked away into a room, just as everything else — from gender, to status, having separate rooms for all library,
IT'S THEIR FUNERAL: M.ARCH THESIS
study, reading, music, breakfast nooks, rooms for dining, fainting, sitting — life and death — all walled off, closed away from further context. Funeral homes still largely resemble this style today, credited by architects as "timeless, comfortable, and expectedly welcome." However, this defense is absurdly naive and ignores the historical applications of the Victorian style. By enforcing convention disguised as tradition, our ability to mourn is inherently contaminated.
These stale and impotent homes presume that a space to mourn in should be 'good enough' and disregards progressive shifts in attitudes towards grief and death. Funerals are facing a post-modernism, directors increasingly being challenged to accommodate imaginative demands or diverse cultural rituals. It has been described as hyper wedding planning, to personalize an event in the short time embalming allows. Today, the deceased is actually
becoming less and less present at ceremonies, due to circumstances such as cremation and body donation. The typical funeral experience — the visitation, officiation, and burial — does satisfy many people, but it depends on their expectations and involvement. The Christian prescription or singular denominational chapel can dull the effects or further confuse a varied congregation. Reversely, non-denominational space can mute
symbolism and sterilize the space altogether. Fifty-seven percent of Wayne County, Michigan is unaffiliated to any religion, and the others who do identify are everywhere in between. We are a lowcontext culture, meaning we promote individual diversity over the group’s identity, and this is often to accommodate for our wide variety of backgrounds. A funeral congregation is no longer composed of just neighbors and bloodlines, but a vast network of friends, colleagues, classmates,
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Images (clockwise): Klicker's Funeral Service Compendium (1996); the funeral home program, separated by public services, private services, and professional privacy; the scripted movements of the visitation, funeral officiation, and burial. Right page: Proposal - Sculptural park pavilion. The space's improvisational form would liberate circulation and elicit freedom in interactions of grief and condolences.
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and their families — dozens of beliefs, all in one room but sharing a common void. Contemplation of death (such as driving past crosses and stuffed animals on highways, or seeing bullet-shattered glass) can appear and surprise us; however, a funeral is a voluntary method of facing loss. Through a funeral, we want to feel the presence of our loss, be immersed within their essence, not the anxieties of social etiquettes. The event has
become a scripted performance, the visitation too often a collection box of anxiously unrehearsed performers, many at a complete loss when it regards interaction. A funeral strives to be an activated memorialization and that going to this space and being within it can serve as a ritual of itself. A solution would be to begin conceptualizing architecture that exemplifies soluble circulation and user-curation.
IT'S THEIR FUNERAL: M.ARCH THESIS
•
Cemetery Context ••
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Urban Context ••••
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Suburban Context ••••••
Our culture is our interconnectivity, existing in fluidity and multiplicity, just as the state of our memories and relationships are to the deceased. The cemetery was a response to overcrowding of church burials, but what will the sensitive response be to dwindling use and application due to alternative internment and memorials? What can the funeral space become when it is no longer time-restrained by embalming or quick event planning? Or what would come of funerals that involve a more integrated and therapeutic planning process? The funeral space needs to dissociate from its expected context and insert itself into more significant cultural centers and reclaim funerary value. The physical space in which remembrance occurs must be uplifting because the hearts and efforts of the people can achieve a symbiosis with the space that a sterile box can never meet.
This thesis prioritizes being able to embed a personal scale of grief or desire to contemplate in order to achieve positive experiences and transformation. It may seem pointless to go to a funeral at all if our attitude is stubborn disdain or passive observation. What could a funerary space be if it were freed from all previous conformities and it instead liberated our interaction with the legacies of the deceased? Working as morphology, funerary architecture can grow with our perceptions of death, rather than working against it. Funerary space should empower the beauty of a varied approach toward death, to address the spectrum of grief. There has most likely never been a funeral where each person had the same level of emotions, as we all possess different scales of grief due to our different experiences.
IT'S THEIR FUNERAL: M.ARCH THESIS
A staple of funerals is memorabilia which includes printed and/or projected photographs. In the present, digital-age, we take so many photographs and relate our memories to so many forms of technology and media. What if technology was recruited in such a way that the network of bereaved could collaboratively curate their own digital installation? Thus, the bereaved could curate an experience that augments the healing process by providing a corporeal architectural body exuding memories of the deceased, an experience that could even be recreated for repeated experiences. This could essentially create a display of photos, videos, and favorite media, but the technology could be further manipulated to create atmospheric intent. The culture of the living
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overseers become the strongest influence on whether or not meaning is created for the decedent and thereafter perceived by the mourners...
and so, a funeral is for the living. Regarding the passing of a loved one, people are undergoing an emotional change and so the physical surroundings in which remembrance takes place becomes vital to the outcome. The main objective of this thesis is to address shifts that funeral space and their services are undergoing. It additionally seeks to uncover the social architecture that funerary space was always meant to be — characterized by response, exchange, and internal change, and not the rituals from which we have become so far removed.
A funeral home very readily resembles a Victorian floor plan, with each function of services occurring in a separate room, as well as having a buffer system of ante-rooms to dissuade intrusion. The act of force-fitting contemporary funeral methods into a Victorian-style house holds many societal implications that disregard progressive shifts in attitudes toward grief and death. Additionally, the funeral program can “fit” inside the programmatic proportions of a dance studio and small theater, meaning the prescribed “funeral home” is by no means the “correct” form for the function. The funeral possesses elements of performance, gathering, and preparation, which are the components of a truly valuable social experience.
CHAPEL FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY professor: stephen vogel integrated design studio (arch 4100) university of detroit mercy school of architecture
UDM CHAPEL 4001 w. mcnichols road, detroit the university of detroit mercy THIS CHAPEL WAS DESIGNED UNDER AN INTEGRATIVE-STUDIO AND IS FOR THE CAMPUS OF THE UNIV. OF DETROIT MERCY. IT WOULD BE USED BY STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND VISITORS OF THE PRIVATE CAMPUS. UDM OBSERVES JESUIT AND MERCY (CATHOLIC) TRADITIONS.
CHAPEL FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY
CHAPEL FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY
CHAPEL FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY
CHAPEL FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY
Sanctuary Furniture
CHAPEL FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY
CHAPEL FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY
CHAPEL FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY
CHAPEL FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY
GLERL RESEARCH STATION: DETROIT RIVERWALK professor: emily kutil vertical design studio (arch 2200) university of detroit mercy school of architecture
GLERL RESEARCH STATION atwater street and the detroit riverwalk, mi SITTING JUST EAST FROM CHENE PARK ON THE DETROIT RIVER, THE GLERL RESEARCH STATION WOULD BE USED AS A BASE FOR RESEARCH VESSELS, AS WELL AS LABORATORY SPACE FOR RESIDENT RESEARCHERS AND INTERNATIONAL SCIENTISTS.
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GLERL RESEARCH STATION: DETROIT RIVERWALK
The glerl research station would also serve as an educational space for local residents interested in the ecology of the detroit river and great lakes marine ecology. lastly, the site solves the disconnected detroit riverwalk by introducing a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the existing boat-slip. the lower boat-slip would continue to serve research vessels while the excess of the area would cultivate a wetland ecosystem to be observed by researchers and visitors.
RAIN COLLECTION
ADMIN.
PUBLIC
LABORTORIES BOAT SHEDS
BOAT SLIPS
SECTION AS VIEWED FROM CHENE PARK
DORMITORIES
WETLANDS
LABORTORIES
PARKING ENTRANCE
SECTION AS VIEWED FROM ATWATER STREET
GLERL RESEARCH STATION: DETROIT RIVERWALK
SITE PLAN
MASSINGS
ROOF
VERTICAL CIRCULATION ATWATER STREET
FLOORS
CHENE PARK
RIVERWALK
WATER SYSTEM
DETROIT RIVERWALK
TERRAIN
High Bays
Bio Fuel Shed
FIRST FLOOR
SECOND FLOOR Dormitory
Welcome Center
Exhibition
Cafe Seating
Exhibition Shared Employee and Public Space
Administration Offices
Outdoor Seating Conference Room
Locker/Shower Room Shared Public + GLERL Space
Lobby and Communal Work Space
Shop/Tool Room
Strd. Lab
Wet Lab
Storage Strd. Lab
Strd. Lab
Strd. Lab
Field Staging Area
THIRD FLOOR Crew Offices
High Bays
Bio Fuel Shed
GLERL RESEARCH STATION: DETROIT RIVERWALK
INDEX USED FOR CONCEPTUAL + SCHEMATIC DESIGN
CONCEPTUALIZATION OF VIEW OF THE DETROIT RIVERWALK
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Site Plan | Scale 1/64” = 1’0” N
EARLIER ITERATIONS AND PROGRAMMING
PHYSICAL MODEL (MUSEUM BOARD AND ACRYLIC
THE DIGITAL IMAGE IN SPACE: SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN ARCHITECTURE professor: claudia bernasconi the digital image in space (arch 5960) university of detroit mercy school of architecture
SPECIAL PROBLEMS ARCHITECTURE: THE DIGITAL IMAGE IN SPACE THIS COURSE REQUIRED THE APPLICATION OF SPATIAL TECHNIQUES THAT ARE AIMED AT CONTROLLING A USER IN THE SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME THAT ART-INSTALLATIONS COMMAND. RATHER THAN EXPECTING DIGITAL PARAMETERS TO BE LIMITING, SPATIAL INSTALLATIONS SHOULD 'RECRUIT' TECHNOLOGY IN SUCH A WAY THAT CREATES A NEW AND UNEXPECTED EXPERIENCE.
THE DIGITAL IMAGE IN SPACE: SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN ARCHITECTURE TITLE: INSOLUBLE HUMAN NATURE media: digital projector, camera, laptop + video editing software, space blankets, hula-hoop, yarn.
Critique:
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description: this installation sought to bring nature's chaos into a shelter and to illuminate on issues of irony and inadequacies of our animalistic tendencies. specifically, our desires to be in nature and then our inability to permanently assimilate. to provoke these revelations, the installation creates a small space that allows immersion in a human constructed shelter filled with chaotic imagery and sounds of nature.
THE DIGITAL IMAGE IN SPACE: SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN ARCHITECTURE STILL 3 TITLE: JULIA media: digital projector, camera, laptop + video editing software, mesh screen, pvc, zip ties, paint, fabric. funded by udm women + gender studies dept.
installation made in collaboration with anthony cressey
Critique: The power of this installation really lied in the audial component of Julia’s story
description: this installation presents a distressing story of transgender discrimination told by the victim herself, the main setting of her story is an alleyway by a shelter she previously stayed with in detroit. through the interview, julia describes systematized, bureaucratic discrimination, then culminates to a direct instance of hateful, violent abuse. to parallel julia's story, the installation seeks to imitate a shelter of deception, seemingly innocent but one that soon reveals itself as a sinister space.
within the installation, two projectors surround the space with visages of 1-3 figures lurking in the background. users are provoked to enter the imitated shelter and a heavy sense of unease is communicated through the compression and the exit hidden by cloth. Additionally, our shadows interact and blend with the actions of the shadowy figures, and so the user also fades into an ambiguous shade - is our projection in danger or are we now perceived to be among the assaulters?
professional page 58
sherwood studios, inc. - w bloomfield, mi design intern
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jp warren interiors - brooklyn, ny design intern
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dichotomy student journal - udm design/urban theory journal: staff 3D visual communications
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3d modeling examples
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SHERWOOD STUDIOS, INC. under mark morganroth, asid west bloomfield, mi 2016
under mark morganroth, i assisted in preparing drawings of client's homes and representing dozens of furniture and home-furnishing providers. i maintained consistent knowledge of the furniture in cycle of sherwood studios' 23,000 sf showroom. our top-selling line was ekorness' "stressless" chairs, ottomans, and accessories. I would assist in choosing appropriate styles, fabrics, wood types, and metal finishes.
sherwood studios is located in the heart of west bloomfield hills twp, mi.
dining room
bedroom
kitchen + family room
library
SHERWOOD STUDIOS, INC. under mark morganroth, asid west bloomfield, mi 2016
tasks: o updated their resource room, including all fabrics, leather and upholstery, window coverings, acrylic/glass samples, wood samples and metal finishes, carpeting and other floor coverings, o all samples were checked to be active or discontinued and then separated alphabetically by company, then further organized by grade, and pattern/color. o organized 25+ yrs of filing system and utilized unused space to minimize overwhelming clutter in office and resource spaces.
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SHERWOOD STUDIOS, INC. under mark morganroth, asid west bloomfield, mi 2016
tasks: o inventory of 200+ accessories which included vases, ceramics, candle holders, art pieces, and mirrors. o placement of accessories around showroom to accent furniture pieces and create client appeal o assisted clients with the selection of furniture + art works o msrp, wholesale + retail pricing o minor furniture repairs o created contact list for all associated vendors
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JP WARREN INTERIORS under jessica plecas warren 280 washington, brooklyn, ny 2015 under my internship with jp warren interiors in brooklyn, ny, i primarily worked with apartments, homes, and small shops in new york city.
tasks: o aided in creating floor plans and massing iterations using google sketchup o met at clients' homes or businesses to deliver and layout furniture o customer relations o helped prepared the company website using squarespace and custom css o photography of accessory products. these photos were also edited + captioned to be used in market through the jp warren website. o conceptualization of furniture such as lamps, dog/pet accessories, and storage containers. o
requested letterpress quotes for company letterhead and worked with third parties to develop memo cards, envelopes, and business cards using the company logo.
JP WARREN INTERIORS under jessica plecas warren 280 washington, brooklyn, ny 2015
JP WARREN INTERIORS under jessica plecas warren 280 washington, brooklyn, ny 2015
during my internship i lived and worked out of jp warren's home + office, which is a brownstone in the clinton hill neighborhood of brooklyn, ny. the home was built in 1887 for the pfizer family and renovated by the warrens 2007-2010. living at the home also led to exposure to set designs as 280 washington was scouted often for film and photography productions. among my other favorite places i frequented were the brooklyn botanic gardens, the museum of modern art, the bam theater, times square, central park, and chinatown.
DICHOTOMY STUDENT JOURNAL udm - school of architecture fall 2016 - summer 2017
23 | HUNGRY
DICHOTOMY.ARCH.UDMERCY.EDU/SUBMIT-23/
DICHOTOMY
DICHOTOMY
DICHOTOMY.ARCH.UDMERCY.EDU/SUBMIT/
DICHOTOMY 23 | HUNGRY
DICHOTOMY
| SCHOOL OF UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY ARCHITECTURE
DICHOTOMY
DICHOTOMY.ARCH.UDMERCY.EDU/SUBMIT/
with dichotomy student journal, i volunteered weekly to develop issue 23: hungry and issue 24: out of service. i worked with authors to layout and publish their articles, imagery, and captions. articles are submitted and then selected by quality of article, imagery, and adherence to the theme.
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DICHOTOMY STUDENT JOURNAL udm - school of architecture fall 2016 - summer 2017
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updated the dichotomy website with current call for entries, the latest digitized issue (22: creep), a new submission page, and a new featured article.
o right page: contributed a restaurant review to 23: hungry, and talked to artists in securing artwork for the next call for entries and frontispiece for 24: out of service. sad monitor by frank zerilli frontispiece by william justin hanagan
Embedded into the development of Cass Corridor since 1993, Cass Cafe embodies community cooperation, which is emanated through endeavors like the cycling of local artists’ works, the into availability of pin-up space, meeting Embedded the development of Cassa lofted Corridor since area, table filledcommunity with local fliers and promotions. 1993, and Cassa large Cafe embodies cooperation, which is The designthrough of theendeavors restaurantlikewas under the emanated theimplemented cycling of local artists’ owner’s construction I can best describe works, the availabilitybackground of pin-up and space, a lofted meeting the as modest, warm, open and inviting. In an area,environment and a large table filled with local fliers and promotions. otherwise clean space, eye was caught by the The designimpeccably of the restaurant wasmyimplemented under excessive radial scuff-marks across the left owner’s construction background andfloor, I canhaving best been describe by cafe’s dozens movable seats. With fixed booths the the environment as of modest, warm, open andnoinviting. In an and no television, restaurant’s becomes otherwise impeccablytheclean space, mygreatest eye wasasset caught by the non-distracting, intimate conversation, as even trackexcessive radial scuff-marks across the floor, havingthe been left lighting system is directed on the artwork, notfixed the booths diners. by the cafe’s dozens of movable seats. With no Everyone, includingthe myself, were paired off,asset with becomes patrons and no television, restaurant’s greatest diverse in all identifications and all involved quiet, non-distracting, intimate conversation, as in even thefocused trackconversation. house salad featured crisply lighting systemThe is directed on the artwork,incredibly not the diners. croutons a garlic myself, balsamicwere dressing Everyone,and including pairedwhich off, was with delicious patrons but potent I wouldn’tand recommend smoochers. diverse in alland identifications all involvedit infor quiet, focused conversation. The house salad featured incredibly crisply croutons and a garlic balsamic dressing which was delicious but potent and I wouldn’t recommend it for smoochers. Kelly Buczniewicz at Cass Cafe
Kelly Buczniewicz at Cass Cafe
Embedded into the development of 1993, Cass Cafe embodies community c emanated through endeavors like the cy works, the availability of pin-up spac area, and a large table filled with local fl The design of the restaurant was imp owner’s construction background and the environment as modest, warm, ope otherwise impeccably clean space, my e excessive radial scuff-marks across the fl by the cafe’s dozens of movable seats. W and no television, the restaurant’s gre non-distracting, intimate conversation, Out of Service represents the faults of the often used, required, and/or favorited amenities in an often inconvenient and adverse lighting system is directed on the artw manner. A depression which despises the current, breeds the inspiration for intervention in the future, and assembles the Everyone, broken pieces. Out of Service requires attention, and the outcomeincluding myself, were pair is often unintended and unexpected. diverse in all identifications and all invo Dichotomy 24: Out of Service invites you… conversation. The house salad featur …to CTRL+ALT+DEL and repair the damage done by the walls that divide croutons and a garlic balsamic dressing the creative from the otherwise static. Submissions should consider Out of Service as a response to the faulty, inevitable, inadequate, and the otherwise obsolete, as well as its relationbut to thepotent discourse and I wouldn’t recommen of architecture, urbanism, design, and all the arts in between. Dichotomy is a student journal of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. Submit your 300-word abstract with 3 images by December 1, 2017 to Dichotomy.arch.udmercy.edu Illustration by Frank Zerilli
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3D-MODELING professor: wladek fuchs 3d computer graphics (arch 1160) udm - school of architecture
IMAGES (CLOCKWISE, LEFT PAGE): MECHANICAL LOUVERS MODELED FOR ANIMATION, AU SABLE LIGHTHOUSE, CORBUSIER CHAIR AND TABLE, GLASS AND METAL BOOKSHELF, VILLA SAVOYE; RIGHT PAGE: COTTAGE
excerpts page 78
historic structures report wallin one-room school house critical analysis
88
cranbrook natatorium
96
phenomenology of architecture phenomenology of the cemetery architectural history and theory
106
selected critical responses
HISTORIC STRUCTURES REPORT: WALLIN ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE (THOMPSONVILLE, MI) professor: stephen vogel historic preservation (arch 5720) university of detroit mercy school of architecture winter 2017
historic structures report: wallin one-room schoolhouse
contents:
Form 10-900 (Nomination for Federal Register) was also completed with this report. As a living document, a copy of the report exists with members of the Wallin Community Clubhouse.
Chronology of Change and Use
Information for this report regarding the schoolhouse and its construction/ remodeling came from site visits and oral accounts by local residents.
historical background
Most information regarding Wallin's logging history and railroad system was retrieved from the "Benzie Bicentennial" (1979), and many of the relevant articles have been included in the full report. Other information within the full report includes insights on the oneroom schoolhouse pedagogy, a typical school day, rules for teachers, more relevant photographs/scans, historic architectural-regulations for schoolhouses, as well as an interesting connection to a previous local chapter of the Odd Fellows fraternity.
Historical Background Current Conditions Assessment Recommendations
History of Building, Landscape, and Historic Context History of Building : According to oral history and land maps, the nearby Norwegian settler Nels Bye built this schoolhouse and was the original owner of the land. Many Norwegian settlers emigrated on Bye’s recommendation to the area formally known as “Wallen/Wallin” before it was incorporated into the later established "Thompsonville" of Benzie County. Thompson and Wallen are two of the many Chicago businessmen that christened small towns of northern Michigan in search of lumber that could rebuild Chicago proceeding the Great Fire of 1871. Early settlers were attracted
to the area for the logging industry, perpetrated by the area’s hardwood mixed forest (see history of landscape). The white, two-room schoolhouse is one of the last vestiges of the original Wallin community, and echoes the typical construction and features of one-room school house construction. The school house taught to at least 8th grade; many one-room schools educated students from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Each school was located with easy walking distance - a mile or two from the farm homes of those children residing in that particular geographic district. Students in all grades were taught by a single teacher in the main room of the school house, the back room being a kitchen/lunch area. Today, the building operates as the Wallin Community Clubhouse and still lacks heat, electricity and running water. Friends lug generators and stoke wood fires in an old stove to bring modern comforts to the occasional euchre party or meeting. The club collects $15 annual dues from members to help with upkeep.
Simplified Floorplan
Left Page (Exterior) Top: Southeast Corner; Bottom: West, Rear-addition Right Page (Exterior) Top: South, Rear additions, (left added ca. 1940, right added 1961); Bottom: Southwest Corner, notice subtle shift in foundation, and the differences in both chimneys and windows.
Images: N. Facade (Entrance), S. Facade, SE Corner Floor plan: Only windows in classroom are represented
The white two-room schoolhouse is one of the last vestiges of the original Wallin community, and echoes the typical construction and features of one-room school house construction. The school house taught from kindergarten to at least 8th grade, which was common in most one-room schoolhouses. Each school was located within easy walking distance - a mile or two - from the farm homes of those children residing in that particular geographic district. Students in all grades were taught by a single teacher in the main room of the school house, and had access to a kitchen in the rear of the building.
HISTORIC STRUCTURES REPORT: WALLIN ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE (THOMPSONVILLE, MI) Today, the building operates as the Wallin Community Clubhouse and still doesn’t have heat, electricity or running water. Friends lug generators and stoke wood fires in an old stove to bring modern comforts to the occasional euchre party or meeting. The club collects $15 annual dues from members to help with upkeep.
Wallin Wallin Schoolhouse (from Atlas: Benzie Schoolhouse Co. Michigan 1901, Chas. E. Farris)
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Wallin Schoolhouse Wallin (from Atlas: Benzie Schoolhouse Co. Michigan 1901, Chas. E. Farris)
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History of Landscape:
and Pere Marquette Railroads, and lies Benzie, the name of the county the in both Colfax and Weldon townships. schoolhouse resides in, is derived from There is a favorable historic shipping point in nearby Frankfort, which is the the French la rivière aux Bec-scies, or "the river of sawbills." Bec-scie last terminal of the Ann Arbor Railroad. ("billsaw") is a type of duck. Americans In collaboration with the Betsy River, altered the pronunciation of the river's railroads, and variety of the forest, the name a little differently, which became people of Wallin historically established known as the "Betsie River". At 321 themselves as a logging community, History of Landscape square miles, Benzie County is the with a mill-pointe built just a few bends down the river from the schoolhouse Benzie, the name of the the schoolhouse resides in is derived from the French la rivière aux Bec-scies, smallest of the 83county counties in Michigan. additional dotted "the river of sawbills", bec-scie ("billsaw") which is a type of duck. Americans alsologging altered thecamps pronunciation of all Thompsonville is situated on the Betsie and the river's name, which became known as the "Betsie River".along. At 321 square miles (831 km²), Benzie County is the River in the southeastern part of the smallest of the 83 counties in Michigan. Thompsonville is situated on the Betsie River in the southeastern part of the countyat at the the junction of theofAnn Pere Marquette Railroads, in both Colfax and Weldonit is county junction theArbor AnnandArbor As the landand is lies abundantly watered, townships. There is a favorable historic shipping point in nearby Frankfort, which is the last terminal of the Ann Arbor Railroad. In collaboration with the Betsy River, railroads, Left Page:and variety of the forest, the people of Wallin established themselves as a logging community, with a mill-pointe built just a few bends down the river and adTop: N Benzie Co, Mi. Logging ditional logging camps dotted all along. camp (Edith Overlease Collection, MSU)
As the land is abundantly watered, it is naturally a good dairy country, but since the soil is a warm, sandy and Bottom-left: 2-67-16 RP, N gravelly loam it is primarily used for growing apples, peaches, and berries. The original forest growth of Benzieplums Co, Thompsonville, Benzie county was hardwood mixed with pine, and included suchDish varieties as hard and soft maple, white and Mi Butter factory (Edith Overlease MSU)hemlock and spruce. This area has black ash, white and black birch, oak, elm, beech, basswood, cedar,Collection, tamarack, shared the general experience of Northern Michigan in theBottom-right: decline ofThrashing its softwood manufactures, but it’s hardat Jacob Wigger’s, Wallin, Mich. wood industry and trade are still considerable.
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naturally good dairy country, but since the soil is a warm, sandy and gravelly loam it is primarily used for growing apples, peaches, plums and berries. The original forest growth of Benzie county Left Page: was hardwood mixed with pine, and Top: N Benzie Co, Mi. Logging included such varieties as hard and soft camp (Edith Overlease Collection, MSU) maple, white and black ash, white and Bottom-left: N black 2-67-16 birch,RP,oak, elm, beech, basswood, Benzie Co, Thompsonville, Micedar, Butter Dishtamarack, factory (Edith hemlock and spruce. Overlease Collection, MSU) This area has shared the general Bottom-right: Thrashing at experience Northern Michigan in the Jacob Wigger’s, Wallin,of Mich. decline of its softwood manufactures, but it’s hardwood industry and trade are still considerable. Right Page: Top: N Betsie River ca. 2015 Center: N Betsie River (Edith Overlease Collection, MSU) Bottom: Benzie Co, Wallin, Mi Lumber camp People Magdaline Long, Nels Bye (Edith Overlease Collection, MSU)
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Maps: Benzie Co. and Colfax Twp. 1901 Photos: Classroom during the winter (Edith Overlease Collection, MSU); a class photo taken in the nearby woods
Top: N Betsie River ca. 2015 Center: N Betsie River (Edith Overlease Collection, MSU) Bottom: Benzie Co, Wallin, Mi Lumber camp People Magdaline Long, Nels Bye (Edith Overlease Collection, MSU)
Right Page (clockwise): Bottom-left: N Betsie River ca. 2015; N Betsie River ca. 1925?; Benzie Butter Dish Factory (Edith Overlease Collection, MSU) 7
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HISTORIC STRUCTURES REPORT: WALLIN ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE (THOMPSONVILLE, MI)
Historic Context: The area known as Thompsonville saw emigrant settlement as early as the first decade of the 1800s and came to a steady incline in the mid-1800s, attracting people from virtually all over the country and many parts of Europe. The government enticed settlers to move large distances with the promise of large land settlements. Many left their homes from across the country due to draughts and poor farming seasons. The pattern that established early American schools includes the earliest settlers staking out the property and building the school themselves. As was the case for the Wallin Schoolhouse (according to an oral account), schools
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were built so that the government would build a considerable county road for travel to and from. When class was needed before the school was built, teachers would sometimes teach in shady, grassy areas or available enclosures. Michigan was also significant with public education as 1809 saw the first law establishing a school system within the US territories. In 1850, Michigan legislature also called for the establishment of a system of primary schools for 3 months of the year conducted in the English language. Additionally, 1875 required ages 8-14 to go to school for at least 12 weeks, 3 must be consecutive; parents were fined $10, then $20, for additional offenses. Education was also elevated
in importance when in 1885 a law forbade employment of children under 14 and made violation of the law a misdemeanor. In 1896, Michigan began issuing standard architectural plans for schools in their Annual Report of the State Superintendent of Education. Photos: Wallin, MI. Firewood on a sled; Benzie Co, MI. Logging camp People Fred Bailey, Boyd Barker, Black Jack Davis; Men floating logs down a river. (All from the Edith Overlease Collection, MSU).
chronology of changes and use (distinct episodes and timeline) 1850: Benzie County becomes settled 1863: Benzie county was initially set off and then organized in 1869 1880s: Nels Bye settles and helps others emigrate to Wallin. He later built and opened the schoolhouse, occupied by children of Norwegians emigrants attracted to the logging industry Other settlers were attracted from other parts of the country by the early American Dream, as the government was offering land grants given out as homesteads to settlers. 1892: Thompsonville was officially seated into Benzie County, and it eventually absorbs Wallin 1910: Thompsonville and Wallin community goes into decline due to a large fire and suffers economic turmoil 1950s: The school closed in the late 1950s and passed between a few community organizations before Colfax Township deeded the property to the Wallin community 1969: Used for Odd Fellows meetings • Rented seasonally to Wallin Coon Club, who at one point closed in the porch but this was then later removed 1980s: Rarely used, fell into neglect 2014: Large restoration efforts by surrounding community • New 15-pane windows were added, a new steeple was constructed, and an antique bell was donated • A new roof was constructed • Shortly after, they held a meeting to decide on pursing historic designation and ultimately voted no Now: Still occupied as the Wallin Community Clubhouse with 45 members but it is rarely used by the few who have taken over operations
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HISTORIC STRUCTURES REPORT: WALLIN ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE (THOMPSONVILLE, MI) Exterior
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Right Page (Exterior) Top: North, Entrance; Bottom-Left: School Bell; Bottom-Right: Entrance
residents, who used a photograph of the before The exterior, being recently repainted and repaired, is in considerably goodschoolhouse condition. The smaller addition it closed in the 1940s; The being recently on theexterior, east-side of the schoolhouse was most likelyrepainted built in 1961 (see further pages 6-7). The portion of the theandbell by the daughter of a building where roof steeps down is also an addition which contains a kitchen eatingwas space. donated Judging by and repaired, isinside, in thisconsiderably good the amenities and details portion was added most likely in the early 1940s, possibly the late 1930s former pupil. The steeple, as shown in a (see further pages 24-25). condition. The smaller addition on the photo of the schoolhouse, and open porch The school bell and steeple are not original but were reconstructed as detailed as possible through the efforts east-side of(seethe schoolhouse was most of local residents appendix: Record-Eagle article) according to a photograph of the schoolhouse before were restored. The chimney remains in a it closed in the 1940s; the bell was donated by the daughter of a former pupil. A photo of the schoolhouse likely built 1961. The of restored the can be seen on page 8. before the steeplein was constructed and theportion open porch was favorable state. Additionally, the windows The chimney remains state. Additionally, windows have been recently replaced, the original building wherein a favorable the roof steeps thedown pieces being either sold for restoration funds or kept by local residents, former pupils, and their relatives. replaced, the original have been recently recentlyan replaced shingles appeared in good contains condition as wellabut the interior showed the latest roof and isThealso addition which being either sold for restoration ceiling repairs are being breached by some minor leaking (see further pagepieces 16). kitchen and eating space. Judging by funds or kept by local residents, former the amenities and details inside, this pupils, and their relatives. The recently portion was added most likely in the replaced shingles appeared in good early 1940s, possibly the late 1930s. The condition but the interior showed the school bell and steeple are not original latest roof and ceiling repairs are being but were reconstructed as accurately breached by some minor leaking. as possible through the efforts of local Left Page (Exterior) Northwest Corner current conditions
Exterior photos (left to right): Exterior, remodeled 2014; recently constructed steeple and donated school bell; entryway; schoolhouse before the reconstruction and removal of covered porch; the remodeling process that 25 was performed by local residents and occurred in 2014. Left Page (Exterior)
Top: Northeast Corner Bottom: Northwest Corner Right Page (Exterior)
Top: Restoration process, 2014 Bottom: Previous siding and window conditions
The photos on the facing page show the condition of the schoolhouse before severe restorations took place to the exterior. The porch was said to have been walled in when the schoolhouse was no longer holding class but was rented by the Wallin Coon Club, a group of local racoon hunters. These images also show a lilac bush that is remembered by former student Virginia Rollo, who remembers it from schooldays in the 1930s. Above, the photo shows the restored porch, restored siding, windows, and bell tower. The bottom photo is hung inside the schoolhouse and was taken during a phase of window replacement.
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current conditions The interior is in considerably good condition and no structural integrity appear to be threatened. There is slight staining in the celling which is relatively recent and unfortunately proceeds a recent roof repair. The staining is visible towards the back near the ceiling fan. The light fixtures are in good condition but it is unclear if they are original to the schoolhouse or if they were additions through restoration efforts. Card tables and folding chairs fill the floor and the few assembled desks that remain
are pushed against the window. The chalkboard is also in good condition and the disintegrating chalk and erasers are still used at seldom meetings. The paint is peeling from the original paneling as well door frames. There is a globe that appears to be in extremely good condition. Supposedly, teachers would spin the globe and stop it randomly and have the children name the country that was landed on. The globe's chain and context don't seem to be original, however the initial location of the globe for student’s use is unknown.
Interior of schoolhouse towards rear kitchen
Water cooler and bulletin board Right Page
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Top: Furnace in kitchen space, television, floor tiles and croquet ; China cabinet
Top: “Wallin Schoolhouse, Principal Woodworth.” From the Edith Overlease Collection, MSU
Bottom: Interior view of kitchen area.
Bottom: Recall the legs and the desks still inside the schoolhouse; they clearly match the desks in this photograph, indicating this is, in fact, the interior of the Wallin Schoolhouse.
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Before entering the kitchen area, one can see an antique water cooler that was once used by the students of the Wallin Schoolhouse. On the facing page is what appears to be an initial attempt to provide propane to the building; however, the furnace is disconnected and currently unused. In another corner is an antique china cabinet filled with dishes and cups, and other glassware. The floor is an antiquated style but is a characteristic product of its time. Other amenities and technologies exist in this space, all of which suffer damage with the changing temperatures but appeared in aesthetically good condition. The wall paneling continues into this addition but the wooden celling creates a warmer environment than the classroom.
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Left Page Top: View to the front entrance, the door on the right leads to storage room that is currently a home to many bats ; the right image shows the entranceway Left Page Bottom: A storage roomentrance, that Top: View to the front contains children’s the door many on theold right leads to books, well that as the that storageasroom is rope currently rings thetoschool a home manybell. bats ; the right image shows the entranceway Bottom: A storage room that contains many old children’s books, as well as the rope that rings the school bell.
Photos (left to right): Cast-iron desk legs in storage; a water cooler; one of two privies, paneling condition; dozens of primers and textbooks, player piano; interior of classroom; a furnace that is not connected; a china cabinet; the rear kitchen area; wood burning stove located in the classroom.
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As far the interior goes, the periphery rooms have not been given much attention. The toilets remain essentially indoor outhouses. The other elements of the space, the paint, the paneling, the metal and wood, all offer glimpses to how the schoolhouse may have looked in the more distant past. As far the interior goes, the periphery rooms have not given remain 39 much Thebeen school bell has a attention. nice soundThe andtoilets a more essentially outhouses. The other is elements appropriateindoor rope than a plastic ribbon wanting.of the space, the paint, the paneling, the metal and wood, all offer glimpses to how the schoolhouse may have looked in the more distant past.
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The school bell has a nice sound and a more appropriate rope than a plastic ribbon is wanting.
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Left Page
Top: Interio from rear lo entrance
Bottom: A w stove, chimn with faux br paneling. Right Page
Top: Teache wooden desk pushed agai
Bottom: An can be found the interior. better days restored
On the facing page, one can see a photograph of the original interior but seemingly after the addition of
HISTORIC STRUCTURES REPORT: WALLIN ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE (THOMPSONVILLE, MI)
work assessment and recommendations
Exterior Envelope:
o This could include a playset (which the schoolhouse once had), horse stalls (as many residents do have horses), fruit trees, and even log stacks. o Any additions or reconstructed elements should use local materials (logging is still occurring in present day Thompsonville) and materials appropriate to the timeline of classes held at the schoolhouse prior to the 1940s.
Overall, the exterior is in very good condition since recent repairs were made in 2014; these repairs were made using a photo of the schoolhouse from the 1940s as a reference. • In general, the exterior should follow the philosophy of preservation, meaning the property should be maintained without significant alteration to its current state (Tyler, 191). • Monitor annually for: o Peeling paint, dirt and debris on siding, windows, and porch o Rotted siding, replace if necessary o Insect and pest infiltration o Determine location of water infiltration of roof, make necessary repairs o Determine condition of primary and secondary foundations and monitor for future cracking o Determine bat activity and take necessary action to remove current population and prevent future incidences. o With so many elderly community members, a hand ramp or another accessibility feature may need to be considered.
• Additionally, the lilac bush and singular trees on the property should be maintained and cared for
• The schoolhouse is situated on a flat plot of land, surrounded by many second growth trees, both deciduous and conifers.
• Windows: Monitor new windows and pest infiltration
• To provide more means of outdoor entertainment for community members (or potential museum-goers), the surrounding natural context could be restored to a condition that is congruent with one-room schoolhouses of a logging community.
Interior Spaces: The Classroom is in considerably good condition and should also take on the general intervention philosophy of preservation. In certain instances of detail, however, restoration may be a more appropriate scale of intervention. • Ceiling: Make repairs as necessary, combat water infiltration more effectively • Walls: Determine if a new wall covering would be more historically appropriate, such as the original white beadboard represented in earlier photographs • Doors: Polish antique hardware and provide draft prevention o Determine the condition of each door and make repairs as necessary • Floors: Floorboards are dull and could stand to be washed but are in considerably good condition and should be left exposed to preserve historical integrity
work assessment and recommendations • Learning materials and other artifacts: o Monitor that these objects be treated with care. Mice have gotten to many books and other objects. o As tools of public education, some objects, such as the globe and the stamp sets, should be more visible if the community ever decides to use the space as a museum The Kitchen Area appears to be in original condition and so it should be preserved.
The materials in there could be stored in the ancillary storage rooms near the front of the schoolhouse. • The toilets are unique and have interesting historical characteristics for the sake of an artifact of learning. • Walls: Determine the significance of the paint color, if not then a fresh coat of an off-white paint would be favorable • Doors: Determine condition of doors and locks, make necessary repairs
• Cabinetry o Determine the condition of cabinetry, discard trash that has accumulated
The Odd Fellows Storage appears structurally sound but its general impression is a junk room. •Organization is needed, many materials should be stored more carefully, such as the iron from the desks
o Stock the kitchen with materials to make the space more usable
•The Odd Fellows’ artifacts are interesting and provide a point of interest for future museum use
• Appliances o Determine which appliances work for their purpose or can be reasonably repaired, which no longer function and should be discarded, and then which no longer function but their presence still offers historical insight to the activities of one-room schoolhouse children and faculty
The Ancillary Storage Rooms are a low priority but trash needs to be discarded and quality objects need to be organized and maintained. A rope, rather than plastic ribbon, should be attached to the school bell.
The Privies are very small spaces and would most likely not comfortably contain modern plumbing. Two bathrooms, for boys and girls, that are mirrored on the floor plan are very characteristic of one room schoolhouses and should be preserved. If indoor plumbing is a priority amongst the community members, perhaps one toilet could be installed elsewhere in the building, such as the Odd Fellows storage room. Written on the chalkboard (for quite a while) is a list of future goals for the Wallin Community Club, all of which are centered around the restoration of the schoolhouse.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS: CRANBROOK NATATORIUM (WILLIAMS & TSIEN; BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI 1999) professor: a.c. martinico history and theory of architecture 111 (arch 2520) university of detroit mercy school of architecture fall 2015 critical analysis of the cranbrook natatorium (williams & tsien; bloomfield hills, mi 1999) by kelly buczniewicz “The pool is conceptualized both as a physical world and as an intellectual and sensual world… Academic and athletic life, mind and body, develop in concert. Art, architecture and landscape are critically and inexorably related. The past is integrated even as the campus looks to the future.” -Tod Williams and Billie Tsien In the beginning of the 20th century, millionaire publisher George Booth began building his estate of Cranbrook, which grew in the 1920s through the 1940s; Cranbrook stands today as a 315-acre campus including a spectrum of manmade and natural settings with beautiful and spacious gardens, woodlands and connecting pathways, as well as significant sculptures, fountains, and architecture. In 1999, construction was finished on a natatorium for Cranbrook’s campus, designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.
The Cranbrook Natatorium’s most essential architectural component is its ceiling, being a seemingly exaggerated cobalt blue plane, obstructed by operable and functional ovoid oculi and a scattering of stellular lights. From its exterior, the building is deceptively
sober, primarily presenting small, dark bricks and deeply colored ceramic tiles as it recedes into its natural setting. The architects placed thorough energy into the integration of the natatorium within the landscape, as well as a sensitive understanding of the building’s relation
to the historic buildings of the campus, and then finally its relationship to the future, thus establishing a triad of temporal subsistence. The building hardly exists as an object, almost appearing as a solidified vertical grid that has grown out of the landscape, the initial procession toward and into the building only reinforcing this proposal; once within the primary pool space, however, a visitor may be unsure he is inside the same building at all, now being within a sort of mystical, sculptural bowl. The interior’s rectilinear and ovular forms intersect on every plane of the interior, permeations and perforations (windows and oculi) acting beautifully as a harmonious reinforcement of the current state of the threshold which separates indoor space from the outside. The details of the building resist an arbitrary existence, as the architects had a functional basis behind nearly all decisions while at the same time striving for the utmost sensitivity toward the exposure of natural elements and so blurring the separation from the outdoors—usually one of the more powerful yet often over missed qualities of architecture. Though Cranbrook strives for a holistic and non-contradictory character,
the procession through Cranbrook’s campus is reminiscent of walking through a village—an assorted collection of programs that are built with sensitivity to necessity and desire, but not necessarily location. The addition of the Williams Natatorium is nestled among a miniature forest of coniferous trees in the southwest corner of Cranbrook’s campus, rooted at the end of a spacious, yet artificially open lawn. In this respect, the procession to the
solid, mossy brick building is subdued but seems comfortably familiar. The building appears elongated and flat, whispering an allusion to Wright’s prairie homes; the non-axial placement of the building is also reminiscent of Wright, however the position is hardly able to be received due to the buildings axial-terminating placement and outer boundary concealment of trees. Though the nature of the continuously built campus may not have allowed for the
Single story wall and promenade. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS: CRANBROOK NATATORIUM (WILLIAMS & TSIEN; BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI 1999)
"Swimming through the forest." Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. most sensitive initial placement of the Williams Natatorium, it is obvious upon reception that the architects worked diligently to empathetically integrate the building’s exterior into its surrounding landscape and context. Through a deliberate move, the Natatorium is tucked behind a single story wall, perhaps to hint at the interior’s surprises to come, but nonetheless acting as a shield of the mundane and vertical exterior forms. The exterior
form is, instead, accentuated by an extended promenade which traverses the contours of the site. In another sensitive move toward the landscape, the natatorium omits the usage of the surrounding sandy “Cranbrook” brick and opts instead for rusted colors including plum accents, recalling the trunks and needles of surrounding fir and pine trees. The Natatorium does not neglect the surrounding Saarinen designs and nuances, however, as they
are attributed through the entrance’s lead-coated copper canopy, as well as the upper level’s entrance, which is skewed off-axis and is composed of a softer brick with a non-orthogonal profile. Concerning the overall driving force of the Natatorium’s design, it appears to be the desire to reconcile the otherwise opposing applications of mysticism and technology in order to solve mechanical and biological problems. For example, the necessity of a pool’s tall interior is solved by taking advantage of the site’s northern sloping, more dramatic hill; slightly precursory drama of the pool room is marked by long shadows cast by exterior window sills, as well as the incorporation of abstractedly colored tiles. While the treatment of the landscape is sensitive to the appeasement of the romantic and strives to exist as a humble, yet orchestrated whole, it is within the interior that the Williams Natatorium is able to let loose, so to speak, and come to life, serving as an ambiguous and exciting threshold between the built interior and the natural exterior. Unfortunately, but interestingly, the procession to the natatorium’s pool as intended by the architects to be dictated by a series of termini was lost on me due
to what I’m assuming was maintenance or seasonal conditions, and was instead replaced by a series of plastic lawn signs. Thus, the smoothness and fluidity through the site and into the building was lost due to this signage, thus corresponding to what now amounts to the fixated following of red arrows that are supposedly leading to an alternate entrance—the procession is now hardly a procession at all and has little to nothing to do with the experience of landscape, architecture or even swimming; once inside, finding the pool also proved to be more difficult than expected. I don’t think I should have disregarded this aspect of my experience, as it was very affecting as a whole to be disoriented in this uncomfortable way while also being aware that Cranbrook’s maintenance crew had more power than Williams and Tsien in how I was able to circulate and receive the natatorium. Receding back to the architects’ intent, however, the natatorium extends the outdoor topography indoors through a winding, almost excessively large ramp which appears to fold in on itself. The ramp very physically recalls the project’s themes of fluidity and intertwinement, such as the important interplaying role of circulation and water throughout
the entirety of Cranbrook’s campus, as well as the intertwinement of natural and manmade counterparts; examples seen within the surrounding campus include wildwood and planted trees, terrain and sculpture, ponds and lakes in juxtaposition to fountains, and of course, the contrast created by the sheer manmade innateness of a natatorium when placed in a naturalized setting. Once inside, the setting is dark and earthy like that of a somber cave. You are then traditionally directed through signage to the locker rooms where this experience is essentially left untransformed; but, once one leaves this last set of axial mazes, you are finally dumped into what contrasts greatly as a seemingly sculptural bowl. Above, a dark blue ceiling seems to hover overhead and is sprinkled with stellular lights. The most predominant features of this space is the irregular dispersal of large, operable oculi, as well as the wall-sized, lightly-tinted horizontal windows, each offering portaled and cropped views of the outdoor, seasonal environment. Williams and Tsien are proposing that perhaps the intermingling of the natural and manmade worlds does not have to be a forceful reconciliation or even an
unbranded adjacent existence, but can rather work harmoniously to solve problems that were originally thought to be relevant to just one domain of the natural environment OR the built environment. The word ‘indoor swimming pool’ essentially screams “manmade sanctuary,” and even emits the noxious chlorine gases that are floating off of the freezing, slimy and laughably sterile-appearing tile floor. The Williams Natatorium completely evades this expectation through material choice alone, the architects favoring surface and sensate experiences— which is appropriate, considering the experience of swimming is normally an indulgence of the senses. The space is neatly lined with rich, mahogany furniture elements and the ground is laid with heated, smooth-faced Italian stone, while the walls are composed in great care of a warm, ground-faced concrete block with black aggregate and charcoal mortar. Aside from the attractive material palette, choices were not heavily decided upon aesthetics alone (as it would seem with the exterior), but were based more on the importance of stitching the necessary functions and programmatic features of the natatorium typology (i.e.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS: CRANBROOK NATATORIUM (WILLIAMS & TSIEN; BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI 1999) 8 lanes, spectator stands, storage, fast pool) into an unexpectedly transformed indoor swimming experience combined with what one swimmer called “all the wonder and freshness of swimming outdoors.” There are several examples of Williams and Tsien’s typology challenge, the most important being the several 30-ft oculi which operate not only to expose the natatorium’s occupants to the elements but acts on the building itself in place of air conditioning as a means for naturally exchanging air and controlling humidity, not to mention the exchange of chlorine odor for the scent of fresh pine trees. The pool is even designed with care, providing an extremely convenient inverted ledge embedded inside of the pool’s wall to rest one’s feet, as well as the use of “quiet water,” which dissipates waves as quickly as possible and allows swimmers to easily hear their coaches. Lastly, the walls are punctured with vertical openings faced with mahogany panels which further aid in circulating air while simultaneously guiding the eye upwards and accentuating the interior form. The airiness and fluctuating interior
Corridor towards pool and ramp towards observation deck. Tod Williams + Billie Tsien. character of the Williams Natatorium is completely concealed by the heavy and enduring, elongated brick exterior. The disconnect that occurs from the procession indoors is extended to the views of the pool space, as an unseasoned visitor becomes disoriented with their location in relation to the campus. The views crop their content of indigenous trees, birds and other wildlife in a way that can no longer
be directly related to the real outdoor environment, but instead creates an impressionist’s dream of an assortment of treasurable geographic snapshots completely dominated by the interplay of elements. For example, the oculi can be opened during a winter storms, which allows snow to enter as a column but is melted by the heated interior, thus creating a spectacle out of an event that could otherwise cause discomfort.
The architects were faced with obstacles in their attempt to integrate their building with their understanding of place. This is seen through the natatorium’s ambiguous service as a threshold between outside and inside, and so a strong intent of the architects’ was transportation. The relationship that was established is intuitive, not artificially framed; however, the interior does lose a sense of connection to the reality of its place in space, the architects being much more focused on the natatorium’s place in time. Through the sensate qualities of seasonal outdoor light and air, the building is rooted in a rhythmic place in time, serving as a gauge to a visitor’s connection to the outside. The Natatorium at Cranbrook is an excellent addition to the campus, and as an exemplar resolution of reconciling nature with a typology developed from technological interventions. The Natatorium at Cranbrook exists as both an excellent addition to the campus, and as an exemplar resolution of reconciling nature with a typology developed from technological interventions. Crafted in careful precision and sensitivity, the Williams Natatorium is a true asset, setting the stage for a myriad
Mahogany and masonry details.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS: CRANBROOK NATATORIUM (WILLIAMS & TSIEN; BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI 1999) of pleasantly subtle sensate experiences, all leading to a grand experience of a delightful swim. The space provides the community, as well as visitors from far and near, a space for recreational and competitive swimming. The experience is largely freed from the artificial sensations generally associated with indoor aquatics. The space provides an architecturally mediated experience that is “like swimming through the trees” and is difficultly matched. Through its sensitive relationships to its context, Cranbrook’s natatorium has a systematic presence, converting knowledge of nature and the senses into an intellectually cultivating space.
View from observation deck.
works cited “Cranbrook Natatorium.” Michigan Architectural Foundation. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. Heymann, David. “Site, Ascendant: Landscape and Architecture.” Places Journal. 1 Dec. 2010. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. Filler, Martin. “Ice Cool Brooklyn.” Ice Cool Brooklyn. NY Books, 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. “Portfolio.” The Christman Company : View Our Work. Christman Co. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE CEMETERY - FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL PERSPECTIVE professor: dr. d.r. koukal phenomenology of architecture (arch 5920) university of detroit mercy school of architecture fall 2016
phenomenology of the cemetery by kelly buczniewicz “Cemeteries serve both functional and emotional purposes. They provide for disposal of corpses and, far more importantly, provide a place where the living can communicate with the dead. They are thus both sacred and profane, in the true sense of Eliade’s concept.1” In another sense, cemeteries illuminate the impermanence of our lives and the solubility of our memories. The cemetery is an incredibly rich space, fascinatingly sharing across its population of the dead not a single appearance of truly identical spaces—a result of the individuality of life and the nuances of death. Through a phenomenological approach this will be an examination of the cemetery, the public’s most prominent and accessible deathscape, prominent meaning they exist in vast numbers and typically requires only mobility to enter. The goal of phenomenology, in brief, is the study of appearances and done by being mindfully open to
an object’s gestures in order to reach a description of the object’s essence, or otherwise unstrippable qualities. As all studies, phenomenology is done through methods, my preferred being phenomenologist Samuel Mallin’s body hermeneutics2, which understands phenomena under categories of experience in socio-affectivity, motility, and perception. Aided by the parameters of these categories I am exploring the schema of the cemetery as a cultural
landscape and an architectural device of time3 which provides a cognitive framework for both archiving and retrieving memories. Taking the architect’s role in public service very seriously, I have a desire to explore architectural interventions involved with the process of death, and so the cemetery is an important space to study due to its accessibility to the general public. I want my description of the cemetery to come into fruition
to understand what essential qualities should remain, which can and should be abandoned due to incompatibility, and which should now evolve to resolve issues of contemporary death processes. In future design-endeavors, I would like to devise which proportion of aforementioned qualities lead to a higher sense of commitment and appreciation to the consolidation and retrieval of memories offered by cemeteries, which I would hope leads to more positively transformative visitations4. A phenomenology of the cemetery could be done indirectly, meaning one could attempt to describe the essence of a cemetery without having visited one, and then one could do the phenomenology in a direct method, meaning it could be done in a manner highlighted by physical immersion. I found that the essence could best come forth through a direct phenomenological experience, having visited numerous cemeteries in the Midwest of the United States and being conscious of the methods I had at my disposal. Personally, I have always been humbled and fascinated by my experiences, having reflected upon imposing circumstances, such as memorialized megaliths or a disorientating procession. Excessive
political or social statements that exist in a cemetery’s jurisdiction (i.e. domineering tombs, disproportionate plots, or immortalized memorials) can begin to blur the more profound gestures of equality and collectivity that the space can evoke—and by extension, blur the essence. The cemetery rewards curiosity, offering the opportunities to unearth hidden moments from life and memory, thus encoding the landscape with the shades of our ancestors and reminding us of aspects of life that had in one moment that deemed
preservation. Whether a visitor has a lived relationship to an occupant, the cemetery and its community stirs recognition of equal and collective death that can be dampened or blurred by the presence of excessive political, familial, and social hierarchy. However, I will claim that these dimensions, portrayed through heterogeneous clusters of graves and commemorative objects are still essential to the nuanced, cognitive journey that is invited through cemetery visitation. On a cultural level, cemeteries become sub/urban uses of land, a “place down
from Typical Cemetery Monuments, from Francaviglia, Richard V. “The Cemetery as an Evolving Cultural Landscape.” Page 503.
PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE CEMETERY - FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL PERSPECTIVE
the road,” meaning a place that is familiar to all of us. However, it is interesting to think they often were not planned or intended at all, being somewhat of an afterthought, highlighting a struggle a human struggle with a denial towards death. In America5, cemeteries frequently appeared on the outskirts of town, only becoming incorporated through the annexation of further territory6. Some cemeteries are planned, such as family burial plots and churchyard burials, however most that we are familiar with in America have formed more spontaneously, reinforcing the ephemeral representation of “where we may fall.” Like many mortuary regulations, the formation of cemeteries does stem from health and legal issues of the past; however, a phenomenon of spatial preference and result manifests from the location of the initiating grave. This provides a direct example of cemeteries becoming geographically woven into the social fabric of a greater context. Cemeteries have grown in a way that is gridded, centrifugal, concentric, asymmetric, in leeway to natural barriers, downward a slope, etc.… and so, nonetheless, a pattern persists. As stated by phenomenologist David Seamon, a powerful consequence of practicing phenomenology is “to
become more sensitive to the lived world, probe aspects of daily living that were taken for granted and less noticed before.7” As one traverses the grounds of a cemetery or scans the horizon, these patterns emerge within spatial and other-sensory rhythms. From the capabilities of our perceptions to these patterns and rhythms we will be grant further access to the archival cemetery. As a gesture, the cemetery reaches out to its community, asking them to peruse their archives while providing spatial strategies to donate one-of-akind additions (a new memorial), and to retrieve intended memories (such as returning to a loved one’s grave), but also to identify new mental images that are evoked by the presences of the unknown. Phenomenologist Jacques Derrida (b. 1930-2004) argued that the condition for possibility for the archive is to always exist, but to exist in a state of doubt involving both endless recovery and record, but also erasure and revision at the same time8. This is where I draw my comparison, as the condition couldn’t be more true for the cemetery, being a deathscape constructed over time as a collection and record of the past that continues to resonate in the present. A grave
may stand at a threshold, stripped yet brimming with identification, floating between the interests of the family and then those of the collective (unfamiliar visitors), the corpse and the corpus9. Phenomenologist and architect Juhani Pallasmaa (b. 1936) wrote in Inhabiting Time, “As deterioration, erosion and entropy are the unavoidable fate of all material constructions, the ideal of perfect and unchanging form is bound to be a momentary illusion, and eventually a false ideal.10” This, again, is evidentially potent in the cemetery, from cracked headstones and moss covered statues, holding on to a figment of eternity but nonetheless emitting a beauty of permeance through illusion. To receive the signals provided by the cemetery’s illusions, there is a performative aspect to the cemetery we must tap in to, solidifying that the dead exist whether or not they can be seen; we make judgments, whether we can help it or not, based on the little information and signs we may collect. This may be the simple dates and epitaphs, helping us discern age, genealogy, religious beliefs, or even senses of humor. At a cemetery, there are only few “tenants” that we can each relate to within us (i.e. a relative or friend), for unless we
are extremely popular, the occupants of a cemetery more often relate to an infinite other11. Signs and traces lie also in the materiality of the space, the illusions of the cemetery, but also the memories of the deceased, and are transformed into a representation of space, many times becoming literal components of space-perception, like a plot in a cemetery, a plaque at memorial, or an urn in a mausoleum… Again, the imagery becomes speculative but the essential quality here is that the cemetery is always a collection of artifacts, signs, sedimented patterns of activity and practices embedded in the fabric of the built environment12. The cemetery teases with total recall, but never fully delivers it and, just like Derrida’s archive, becomes a culturally compelling fantasy, but nonetheless a multiplicit record that can reveal not just voices that may otherwise be unheard, but the soundings of memory. There exists an interest amongst the public to maintain a collective ownership of cemeteries, viewing them as crucial open spaces. Collective ownership may encompass respect to a certain degree, however I think it more lends to an idea of defending a sense of serenity within community. A sense of community
can diminish through the erection of a domineering fence, barbed wires, or single fortress-like entrances, but these are variant and political statements and yet again smudge the phenomenological lens, ever striving towards the elusive essence. Still, however diminished, the phenomena persist of the spatiality within the borders, however diminished for the perceivers on the outside. Through perception (back in regards to body hermeneutics), I’ll claim that an essential quality of cemeteries is to possess a set of topographic parameters, whether as explicit as a road or a lake, or as ambiguous as the scattering of the last outlying graves. Now we’re here, within these limits. Some parameters are tight, while others allow for complete immersion and disorientation. Cemeteries are an ironic reflection of the towns they are situated in, embodying a microcosm of social values, representing, to an almost humorous degree, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ neighborhoods (through love or abandonment), zoning influences (through structured or loose organization), and suburban vs. urban tastes (such as familial segregation or intermingled dispersal). Though phenomenology seeks to find the bare, essential qualities that describe an
object, the process must, too, seek out the inessential. The cultural reflections in cemeteries should be bracketed, or set aside, and at this distance did I see that the essential quality at stake is that this ‘cultural reflection’ occurs in every instance of a cemetery, whether descriptively or vague. Zooming out just to the borders, the necrogeography13 of cemeteries often exist as stark contrast to their surrounding context, the phenomenology here is concerned with both singular and repetitious death and to those who may reckon with the surrounding questions. As history generally tells us, the church originally claimed the corpse, but as odors began emitting from the floor the bodies were moved to the cemetery, denoting an intentional demarcation of space for the dead from the living. Intended as a protection for us, the cemetery is better described as protection for them, the dead. Now that we come to their realm, our defenses now lie in not being overcome by the gaze of otherness14. As we become more alert toward temporal rhythms, the cemetery appears as an integrated landscape, encoded with traces of unity, sacrifice, longevity, early demise, love and abandonment. A visitor
PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE CEMETERY - FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL PERSPECTIVE
may become overwhelmed by the multiplicity of forms and residues, as memory competes with visual stimuli to evoke a certain experience across a topographic reality. This is a terrain of mourning and remembrance of not only the dead but of the past, as well as a vision toward the future with the demised. Pallasmaa continued in Inhibiting Time that “Architecture articulates our experiences of time as much as of space, though we are often not conscious of it. There are slow and patient spaces as well as hurried ones.” I assert that a cemetery is a patient one, “unaffected by the nervous rush of the contemporary world.” Holding passing impressions but constructed within a work of time, the movement through a cemetery is a slowed down experience, and possesses an essence of permanence and encountered as a tranquil duration. The necrogeography folds and unfolds time, as the act of the present (i.e. the funeral ritual) brings the cemetery back from its place in history. A cemetery truly does hold a population, molding the deceased into a community as shown through a familial bonding of clustered graves or the fraternity of a mass military interment, also mingling
amongst single narratives embodied by structures (such as lone plots). Cemeteries reduce the dead to images or traces, built off of the dead that exist in our imagination and constructed memories of a collective past. The cemetery accommodates the beautiful death, the remembered death, as well as the neutral death, but rarely does a cemetery provide traces of a tragic death in which the body’s overseers condemned that their memory wasn’t worthy of integration into the deathscape (i.e. criminals). In a pessimistic excerpt about “using heritage as a part of urban regeneration,” the author Kevin Hetherington describes that “the presentation of history as heritage is part of a culture industry that rather than helping us to remember the past actually produces a form of amnesia and forgetfulness in which above all the history of practice becomes reified in monumental geographical sites15.” In relation to the archival cemetery I would agree with this statement but, whether or not the cemetery is viewed as propagandized “amnesia,” providing access for remembering the beautiful deaths is simply a part of the cemeteries essence… Commenting from Jorge Luis Borges
remark that ‘There is an eternity in beauty,’ Pallasmaa provides insight again who shares, “Beauty is a promise; the experience of beauty evokes the presence of apparently permanent qualities and values – an illusion, no doubt, but mentally an important one.16” In contemporary society, the essence of the cemetery appears even more readily than in the past, as the true venture of landscapes have only become more visible with time. This is assuming there are more “old” cemeteries than new, meaning the cemetery I am familiar with in my imagination has already receded back to nature. Cemeteries, when kept in a lush state or unkempt and overgrown, may stir thoughts of regeneration, fertility, and abundance— an obviously ironic perspective to have when traversing through a space populated by the dead. Many are enthusiastically drawn to cemeteries as objects of geographical study but may form impressions on a more subconscious level, especially, of course, when studied through a phenomenological lens. It has been hopefully made clear that this space is not just a graveyard—simply a place to leave dead bodies. The cemetery is a multi-use landscape, providing natural
formations of viewing corridors—such as peering through lines of trees or down a main pathway toward a skyline of monuments and headstones. The space welcomes repositories of natural diversity, as cemeteries tend to serve as refuges for wild fauna of the vicinity and often become important sites for individual and social recreation17. It becomes easy to compare a cemetery to a ‘contemplative’ park: we move through it almost the same as we go through motions of jogging, bird watching, hunting for lichens, or in idly walking, treating the space like an outdoor historical installation, moving as an outside intervention on this social record. Furthermore, in comparison of cemeteries to parks, they both possess an intermingling sense of community with social ritual. They both also possess ambiguous or explicit demarcations of individual, mass, public, and private importance. The description of the cemetery is not as simple as ‘a park with an added use of body depository,’ because unlike a park there is a heightened sense of sensitivity, exhibited by unplanned footpaths having been eroded away with care and through areas that don’t desecrate the inhabitants’ space. Our sensitivities to death are heightened,
striking powerful feelings and deep reflections into our humanity. We know that it is here within the parameters of the cemetery that we are allowed to express lamentation. Whether or not the provided symbols are used for their ‘historical’ intended purpose, the cemetery provides literal topographical
grounds for constructing meaning within this life. Though activated by our presence, we almost want to paradoxically preserve the cemetery’s underutilization, recognizing and wanting to maintain this spatial bridge between consciousness and unconsciousness in a state of
PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE CEMETERY - FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL PERSPECTIVE
undisturbedness, as we may not be so ready to delve across. A cemetery’s mission is inherently, delicately balanced, hovering in a threshold between honor and trauma, creating sensitivities towards ‘memories-halted’ due to loss and ‘memories-gained’ due to traces of mental images ingrained into the topography. The architectural ‘success’ of cemeteries should not be based off economic measures, but rather how well they present and collect the memories and emotive defenses against loss—a similar model for successful archives. Mourning is ambiguous, we don’t know for fact what we have lost but try to make sense of it through ritual and ceremony18 in search of closure and the cemetery gestures to us to do just that. Accordingly, this space very often reveals a somber song; however, the attuned listener may become uplifted and humbled by the softly intertwined notes of life, from the birds and squirrels to the flowers and sculptures that demarcate care for plots and the grounds in general. A phenomenological ability of the cemetery is to incorporate the dead into a state of body politics that possess an infinite influence on the living, being dormant to some or
activated in others, but essential to the cemetery’s description. Additionally, they provide space for permanent memorial and have become a model for honoring the dead; furthermore, cemeteries open a dialogue with the past, and offer strategies for the consolidation and retrieval of memories through providing a civic, spiritual, and cognitive framework. Beliefs in imminence and transcendence can be both satisfied with an attuned intent, as we become reminded through the cyclical nature of the cemetery’s display of growth, decay, regeneration, and embodiment of social attitudes of love and interest, folded into the landscape one patch at a time, waiting patiently for recovery. _____ endnotes 1: from Francaviglia, Richard V. “The Cemetery as an Evolving Cultural Landscape.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 61, no. 3, 1971, pg. 501. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. 2: from Samuel Mallin, “An Unpublished Manuscript on the Method of Body Hermeneutics,” with a brief forward by Astrida Neimanis; edited by D.R. Koukal. I also want to point out that a bounded imagination is particularly useful in phenomenology, but that the method, like all, should be used cautiously but I find it as a preferred choice as its useful for structure and clarification. 3: from Pallasmaa, Juhani. "Inhabiting Time." Architectural Design 86.1 (2016): 57. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. “Historical settings connect us directly with time and the past: the layering of styles and the juxtaposition of different uses and activities – commonplace and ceremonial, utilitarian and symbolic – place us comfortably in the continuum of lives through centuries.”
endnotes 4: "Toward a Phenomenology of the Public Cemetery." World History. N.p., 14 July 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. 5: I would like to reiterate that I am most familiar with cemeteries of the United State’s Midwest and that this paper might consequentially border a phenomenology of specifically American cemeteries 6: Read further from Harvey, Thomas. “Sacred Spaces, Common Places: The Cemetery in the Contemporary American City.” Geographical Review, vol. 96, no. 2, 2006, pp. 295–312. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. He provides this internal reference“ Nineteenth-century Romantic “rural cemeteries,” long engulfed by urbanization, are no longer highly popular country retreats. Desires for more active recreation spaces have generated new types of parks, and widespread automobile ownership has made the countryside more accessible. The type and degree of passive recreation that once took place in cemeteries like River View is not as popular as it once was (Schuyler and O’Donnell 2000). 7: Seamon, David. A Geography of the Lifeworld. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1979. 8: Naas, Michael. “History’s Remains: Of Memory, Mourning, and the Event.” Research in Phenomenology, vol. 33, 2003, from abstract. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. 9: "Toward a Phenomenology of the Public Cemetery." World History. N.p., 14 July 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. 10: from Pallasmaa, Juhani. "Inhabiting Time." Architectural Design 86.1 (2016): 57. Web. 07 Dec. 2016 11: Hetherington, Kevin. "Rhythm and Noise: The City, Memory and the Archive." The Sociological Review 61 (2013): pg. 17. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. 12: See further Hetherington, Kevin. "Rhythm and Noise: The City, Memory and the Archive." The Sociological Review 61 (2013): pg. 18. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. 13: Necrogeography is the geography of burial practices. (GIS Lounge) 14: Read further from Derrida, J., (1994), Spectres of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International, New York: Routledge. Derrida continues his long meditation on the nature of the other and the gaze of the other from Husserl to Levinas by suggesting that mourning has to do with incorporating not just the deceased, but their gaze, a gaze that makes us responsible before the deceased and that can be responded to only as a kind of absolute imperative. It is this gaze that makes all mourning, according to Derrida, at once necessary and impossible, necessary insofar as the work of mourning involves incorporating the friend, coming to terms with his or her death within ourselves,
PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE CEMETERY - FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL PERSPECTIVE
endnotes and impossible insofar as the singularity of the friend, that which must be incorporated, that gaze that calls us to be responsible, always exceeds our subjectivity and our capacity to make the other—here, the deceased other— our own. Hence mourning is always related to the impossible incorporation of a gaze that constitutes for us an infinite demand, a gaze that always hovers between someone and something, the completely identified and the unidentifiable, the knowable and the unknown. 15: from Hetherington, Kevin. "Rhythm and Noise: The City, Memory and the Archive." The Sociological Review 61 (2013): pg. 18. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. 16: from Pallasmaa, Juhani. "Inhabiting Time." Architectural Design 86.1 (2016): 54. Web. 07 Dec. 2016 17: from Harvey, Thomas. “Sacred Spaces, Common Places: The Cemetery in the Contemporary American City.” Geographical Review, vol. 96, no. 2, 2006, pp. 295–312. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. “The authors of a British study noted: “But not every cemetery visit is to attend a particular grave. Where it has become more of an historic site than an active cemetery, people comment upon the special qualities which are unique to such a place, emphatic that cemetery and park experiences are quite different” sacred space, Francis, Kellaher, and Neophytou 2000, 39). It was also noted that “Cemeteries across the nation have taken on new meanings and are being used for purposes other than as grave sites. As cemetery space is filled, new burials decline, and neighborhoods change, many cemeteries have lost their traditional social connection with nearby neighborhoods.” 18: Read further: Tainter, Joseph A. “Spatial Organisation and Social Patterning in the Kaloko Cemetery, North Kona, Hawaii.” Archaeology &Amp; Physical Anthropology in Oceania, vol. 11, no. 2, 1976, pg. 91. “Mortuary ritual involves an interaction between the social personality of the deceased individual and the social personalities of the living participants (Saxe, 1970). Since ritualized behavior reflects the social relationships between the deceased and the living is commonly engaged in upon the death of a member of a community, and since much of this ritualized behavior finds an expression in the archaeological record, mortuary data may potentially reflect the range of social personalities occurring in past societies.”
works cited Bradley, Richard. "Seeing Things: Perception, Experience and the Constraints of Excavation." Journal of Social Archaeology 3.2 (2003): 151-68. Web. 07 Dec. 2016 C. D. Abby Collier. “Tradition, Modernity, and Postmodernity in Symbolism of Death.” The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 4, 2003, pp. 727–749. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. Francaviglia, Richard V. “The Cemetery as an Evolving Cultural Landscape.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 61, no. 3, 1971, pp. 501– 509. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. Harvey, Thomas. “Sacred Spaces, Common Places: The Cemetery in the Temporary American City.” Geographical Review, vol. 96, no. 2, 2006, pp. 295–312. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. Hetherington, Kevin. "Rhythm and Noise: The City, Memory and the Archive. "The Sociological Review 61 (2013): 17-33. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. Naas, Michael. “History’s Remains: Of Memory, Mourning, and the Event.” Research in Phenomenology, vol. 33, 2003, from abstract. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. Pallasmaa, Juhani. "Inhabiting Time." Architectural Design 86.1 (2016): 50-59. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. Seamon, David, A Geography of the Lifeworld. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1979. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. Tainter, Joseph A. “Spatial Organisation and Social Patterning in the Kaloko Cemetery, North Kona, Hawaii.” Archaeology &Amp; Physical Anthropology in Oceania, vol. 11, no. 2, 1976, pp. 91–105. "Toward a Phenomenology of the Public Cemetery." World History. N.p., 14 July 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
CRITICAL RESPONSE: COLIN ROWE AND FRED KOETTER: COLLAGE CITY
Collage The essay, “Collage City” discusses and
compares two visions of urban society:
professor: a.c. martinico history and theory of architecture 111 (arch 2520) university of detroit mercy school of architecture fall 2015
the universalizing rational Cartesian familiarity of Disneyland’s main street. grid of Superstudio and the nostalgic “Papiers Although Collés, the pair polarizes from modern ” derived the French wor ideology in respect to planning, the be an art fo for “Paper” and “to glue,” can authors seeis both visions as wrong, in expressi that free and spontaneous believing that neither memory nor of impulse, or a controlled portrayal of ide prophecy is capable of adequately Historically, collage has been used by artists responding ‘the problem of the city’ or over 500toyears, reaching its maturation und ‘what Picasso the real might be supposed to be.’ and Braque who were inspired This is because memory and prophecya “constructi Cezanne. Cezanne described are after each debilitating in their assumption nature,” meaning that existing forms of “an entirely false psychology,” (i.e.spheres, cube nature can be reduced to cones, nostalgia) or being regarded as “entirely and cylinders. This method, especially wh illusory”; and so, theand authors call imagery for the used in collage other technique ideal city to behave as both “theatre can often uncover inner structures or realities of prophecy and theatreRather of memory,” objects in question. than form, Dadais which I interpreted to mean that later utilized collage to revoltno against traditi singular concept superior on which to andissociety and to shock the publ base urban design. In the same respect, I think Rowe and Koetter consider science and tradition ill-equipped to provide effective urban-solutions on their own, but when understood in a manner of duality, rather than opposition, the two can both be seen as tools that examine what is known and exists, and then aid in the revision and advancement of architecture and urban design. _________
When the term “bricolage” is introduced as an alternative to comprehensive approaches of urban design, the authors are referring to a radical heterogeneity of urban space based upon an autonomous (decentralized) grid. The term designates a way to make systems of architectures which convert otherwise discarded or found elements into new uses of broader effect. Later in the essay, the authors draw a distinction between ‘the fox and the hedgehog,’ in order to prompt the reflection of fundamentally different attitudes toward what it means to design, as based off of an article by Isaiah Berlin (and like a collage of stories, his is an interpretation of Aesop’s fable “The Fox and the Cat). Originally, the distinction between the fox and hedgehog was made to categorize two generalized, vertical and horizontal ways of thinking, the hedgehog burying his expertise in only one subject, while the fox knows generally about many things which are in turn related to a more universal concept, although sometimes contradictive. Rowe and Koetter argue that the line between the fox and hedgehog is actually unclear, and so are the means in which to design in each manner. Reality is more closely described as the meeting point of much more complex and ambiguous relationships;
so perhaps, the authors explained, instead of holding onto one idea and destroying the oppositions, it may be necessary to embrace many angles so as to design as the hedgehog who wears the mask of the fox1; and this is what they propose was done by Corbusier during his planning of Versailles. With hedgehog perception, Corbusier broke down the existing plan of Versailles and engineered a completely new and singular, holistic concept; on the other hand, Hadrian’s Villa is closer to the concept of the “collage city” as it stands in a more sophisticated complexity when considering its pieces which present themselves in an orchestrated manner while at the same time being tolerant of random circumstances. _________ At one level, “Collage City” can be read as an indictment of the process of urban design. Personally, I do think Rowe and Koetter have made a convincing argument against the possibility of
large-scale urban planning because I don’t believe a large-scale city can ever be experienced, even remotely, as a whole. I find it essentially impossible to comprehend how something with so much complexity rooted into itself, could ever be preemptively planned or even adjusted, after the fact, on a large scale. On the level of contemporary urban needs, I do not think any singular means can sufficiently address the prevalent issues, but I do think the innate structure of collage is advocative of this goal in regards to its collected nature as an extension of contemporary society. Society increasingly becomes an eclectic amalgamation of potentially millions (or billions) of citizens. I’m not necessarily imagining a collection of “copy and pasted” cultural artifacts but more like a means that translates a mixture of spontaneity and careful control into a careful interpretation of the unique and essential parts necessary to create the sought after ‘large-scale urban composition.’
works cited Francaviglia, Richard V., Colin Rowe, and Fred Koetter. "Collage City." The Antioch Review 37.3 (1979): 368. Web. endnotes 1: Senakocakaya. "From Collage City / Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter." Word Press, 4 June 2015. Web.
CRITICAL RESPONSE: WALTER BENJAMIN - PARIS, CAPITAL OF THE 19TH CENTURY professor: a.c. martinico history and theory of architecture 111 (arch 2520) university of detroit mercy school of architecture fall 2015
In this excerpt, Walter Benjamin centers his testimonial considering Paris to be the capital of the 19th century at the city’s arcades—one of the many products of the era which marked the transformative progression towards modernity. Similarly to his contemporary Parisian intellectuals, Walter Benjamin was significantly influenced by Marxist writings1 and so by ‘capital,’ perhaps Benjamin means literally the center of capitalism. Benjamin notes that Paris became this capital in congruity with Napoleon III’s 1867 World Fair (Exposition Universelle) which successfully exposed the city at the “height of its power” and being acknowledged as the capital of luxury and fashion (commodity). The framework for the rapidly necessity of commodity was illustrated through the iron framework of the Parisian Arcades2. Though at times it is difficult to read him in a tone that is not astringent, Benjamin does affirm that, through these capitalist exhibits that the city presents, Paris asserts itself as the capital of the 19th century, an
era in which the world was driven by capitalism and the desire for material items which was becoming increasingly popular alongside the desire to personalize, or assert the “self,” rather than the group, or “class.” _________
I found Walter Benjamin’s use of juxtaposition with a person and an aspect of architecture to be majorly the purpose of a literary device. It is difficult to label Benjamin, his works bordering on many edges of historical, narrative, philosophical, and sociological genres. He is confronting heavy topics, but
combines criticism with explanation in a literary fashion, making repeated use of analogies and metaphors. I believe the result is a timeless product which reads as a narrative and is able to transgress more than a century and still be relevant to the scholarly audience. In the portion that juxtaposes LouisPhilippe and the interior, Benjamin accounts for the evolution of his surrounding social structure (made significantly possible by LouisPhilippe), as it progressed towards an attempt at defining the individual. Preceded by exhibitions of industry, world exhibitions were entertaining and an educative place of pilgrimage for commodity fetishism. This is a phenomenon developed through the saturated display of goods and the growing need of the citizen to fill their dwelling (interior) with these goods in the attempt to reflect their individuality through an illusionary private space. At the end of the 19th century, it was difficult to ignore the loss of private space and most people no longer worked in their place of living; and so, even the office, or counting-house, would become personalized3. Benjamin often mentions the “phantasmagoric” experience, such
as the capitalist Parisian wandering down the arcades, surrounded by the bourgeois display of their country’s’ pride in the form of material goods. Using an analogy of a museum compared with a department store, Benjamin states that Parisians are not being flashed with art but with these capitalist displays. His society was organized around an occupation with commodity— paralleling the US and other countries today and its constant development of department stores and impounding amount of advertisement. The workers are taught to believe in exchange value by the display of luxury goods from a world marketplace. In congruence to Marxist theory, Benjamin believes “the reform of consciousness consists solely in... the awakening of the world from its dream about itself4.” works cited Benjamin, Walter. "Paris: Capital of the Nineteenth Century." Perspecta 12 (1969). endnotes 1: Princeton University Press. Web. 8 Sept. 2015. http://press.princeton.edu/ chapters/i9930.pdf. 2: Enotes.com 473540. Endnotes.com, 5 Jan. 2015. Web. 3: Dr. Duffet. “Pop Research Links.” Walter Benjamin’s ‘Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century’ (1939). Pop Research, 11 July 2009. Web. 4: Coetzee, JM. “The Man Who Went Shopping for Truth.” The Guardian. 20 Jan. 2001. Web.
CRITICAL RESPONSE: IGNASI DE SOLA-MORALES RUBIO - TERRAIN VAGUE professor: a.c. martinico history and theory of architecture 111 (arch 2520) university of detroit mercy school of architecture fall 2015
We do not see light the way in which we see the effects of light, and with these effects we design aVague,” space thatSola-Morales empowers apoint person In the essay, can “Terrain that “even our direct to grow happily and intuitively. We see author Ignasi de Sola-Morales Rubio experience of the the built object cannot continually shifting patterns of contrast in focuses on a vague andasambiguous escape the mediation of photography.” clouds light penetrating the atmosphere conceptualization ofVWULNHV SDUWLFOHV WKDW SDUWO\ DEVRUE DQG UHÁHFW the void and as it Extending from the photograph as a WKH VXQ·V HQHUJ\ :LWKLQ P\ ÀUVW LPDJHV , exists within the modern city. Using medium, Sola-Morales also proposes produced after visiting the site, I sought to look his description of the photograph, the photograph to the qualities of he naturethat to better understandoperates not as an introduces what isthe meant by terrain icon, but as an index. I components of splendor in thesemiologically experience of a place I wished to be used and seen within vague, as well as how the photograph think that icons are complete, or perhaps an urban society.
commissions our understanding of condensed, created over time through a the city. Sola Morales explains that collected effort, and are perceived by the photography’s “aesthetic and technical” majority of its corresponding society as development was contemporary with significant and readily recognizable;. the progression of architecture and In contrast, an index (specifically, as architectural representation into the photographs) is judiciously created by modern era; in that regard, “The an individual to be relative on a broader photomontages of Paul Citroen, Man scale than the icon. The index provides Ray … set out the accumulation and glimpses of the city through personally juxtaposition of great architectonic chosen and significant compositions— object as a way of explaining the not technically being able to provide experience of the big city.” I find that the wholeness of the icon, but rather the photograph provides us with being able to frame our focus on an instrumental understanding Theory of smaller pieces Studio that may allow us(3rd to year and Digital Excerpts Martinico andthen Becky Nix) an Tony art history book, and reading the city, meaning the photograph construct our own whole. Additionally, about the German Dada Movement), essentially becomes separate from the I find an index works in any case as so when a viewer takes in a series of photographer, thereby becoming a tool a collection of seemingly important photographs of modern architecture, in itself which orchestrates amongst its details from a broader topic that are an experience with the built object is consumers a realm of manipulation that used to direct our attention to a sub- provoked but is unauthentic, and any influences our perception—alluding to topic (i.e. looking up “Hannah Höch” in proceeding experiences with the object
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in person will be inevitably met with preconceptions and preconstructed images. Other authors whose views about photography are similar to SolaMorales include Susan Sontag (“On Photography) and Roland Barthes (“The Photographic Message”). Susan Sontag recognized, too, that “there is something predatory in the act of taking a picture.” Sola-Morales would agree with Sontag when she says that, “photographs actively promote nostalgia… A beautiful subject can be the object of rueful feelings, because it has aged or decayed or no longer exists.” Perhaps paradoxically, the photograph attempts to preserve a moment as enduring, and this ‘moment’ is what Berger can extend on, noting that all photographs are of something that has been (in that moment), but will never be again; the ways these photographs are read are what Sola-Morales identifies as being limitedly inseparable from our reading of existent space. _________ In “Terrain Vague,” Sola-Morales asks the question, “How can architecture act in the terrain vague without becoming an aggressive instrument of power and abstract reason?” This question relates to the innate properties of the photographic medium (framing, composition, detail)
as being manipulative and resultantly discriminatory, and are the main source of how the voided and ambiguous spaces of the terrain vague are represented and thereby perceived—existing as obsolete spaces outside of the city’s routine, and thus strengthening the predomination of the memory (the photograph) over the present (the existing site). The architect’s problem with the terrain vague is finding ways to build and empower these spaces, rather than let them degrade into the hopeless despair that is projected through photographs. Sola-Morales advocates constraint on the part of architects and planners to the extent of needing to work for “an architecture of dualism.” This acknowledges and embraces the discontinuity of the terrain vague, yet, without violating this complexity, works to be fluidly integrated into the city by
harnessing existing forces, rather than being concerned with the production of forms. In a similar vein, Sola-Morales is also calling for social action in that the strangeness of these places should not be feared and condemned as wastelands, but rather requires a sensitive approach and sophisticated openness to the world. Sola-Morales’ ideas lend to the possibility of comprehensive urban planning in that architects, artists (painters, sculptors, illustrators), and scholars can collaborate to generate a body of work that encircles the ambiguous potential of the terrain vague. This includes the apparent rhythms and flows which constitute the continuity of the city, rather than planning models that encourage urban growth and prosperity since this lends merely to shallow capitalistic gains.
works cited Rubio, Ignasi De Sola-Morales I. "In Response on the In-Visibility of Tectonics." Perspecta 31 (2000): 45. Web. works referenced Metcalf, Andrew. "Photography and Architectural Appearance." Form Words. 10 Nov. 2015. Web Shepherd, Rhea. "Terrain Vague – Ignais De Sola-Morales." Tumblr, 8 Dec. 2009. Web. "Terrain Vague." Artibutos Urbanos. Web.
CRITICAL RESPONSE: JAMES CORNER - EIDETIC OPERATIONS AND NEW LANDSCAPES professor: a.c. martinico history and theory of architecture 111 (arch 2520) university of detroit mercy school of architecture fall 2015
In Eidetic Operations and New Landscapes, James Corner analyzes the concept of landscape and the processes through which it can be “imaged”. By image, Corner typically uses the term as a verb; to image is not merely forming a “retinal impression of pictures,” but is rather involving more than just visual and formal qualities to engender some sort of clarity or ultimate vision; a means of generating this image is through eidetic operations. By eidetic, Corner is initially referring to “of a mental image,” or “a mental conception that may be picturable but may equally be acoustic, tactile, cognitive or intuitive.” The term eidetic embodies much more, perhaps involving the collective experience. However, I think eidetic also implies inimitability from each observer, but somehow an eidetic image attempts to embody all perspectives, or multiplicities, into one ultimate reality. However, I think that the eidetic operations are more important in themselves, as they are what generated the paths to reach this image. The image, [as a product of imaging],
Corner claims, is more than simply a mental picture or representation due to the fact that the conceptualization of reality is conditioned by the operations of imaging. It is revealed through both a sequential and spatial unfolding of elements as predicated by external and internal forces; collective and subjective. Another concept Corner articulated on was the derivation of the term “landscape,” which he traced back to the Old English term landskip, and the term landschaft. The eidetic images of “landskip” and “landschaft” differ in respect to what they communicate, the latter being more useful for designers. The eidetic image of landschaft is more often vague, and its significance involves a deeper, psychological analysis due to its complexity which is contrived through “tactility, use, and engagement over time.” Landskip, or “landscape as contrivance, primarily visual and sometimes also iconic or significant,” communicates a perhaps stale and superficial, less instrumental eidetic image. This is due to the derivation from repeated processes of prior imaging
thus limiting the ”full eidetic scope of [design] creativity.” _________ Corner examined the images that arise from the several types of eidetic operations, one being the game board. Traditional representation of landscape architecture is often read in plan, a view the observer will never see. Due to placement of elements and irrelevance to reality, traditional representation is also often read, not imagined, and so it is often uninvolving. On the other hand, the game board is innately involving and accordingly invokes a string of both collective and infinitely subjective experiences (i.e. the “idea” or publicly perceived synopsis of the game, and each person’s experience each time with the board). Traditional representation is, by definition, representational, but a useful image (one that unfolds the multiplicities of reality) should be both instrumental and representational. Often being pictorial, a game board is representational as an object, but the game board more effectively makes use
of orthography, a tool Corner notes has a richer set of possibilities than currently exhausted. The board elements can make use of layers and planes, and then become suggestions for action, inducing internal strategy that makes sense of the layers of information on the board. These layers correspond to external forces from game pieces and cards--consequently generating multiplicities which lend to a totality of possible outcomes. This corresponds to what Corner says of eidetic imagery, that it “does not represent reality of an idea but rather inaugurate its possibility.” Corner argues that eidetic mappings lie at the core of shaping an invisible landscape. Eidetic operations such as this permit us to understand and imagine landscapes differently through an “efficacy, or adeptness in turning, forming, and enabling emergent realities.” I can’t think of anything more perceptually transformed through “tactility, use, and engagement over time” than a game board, reaffirming to me its usefulness in eidetic operations. Eidetic imagery is not formed through response to significant features or events, but rather through subjective and collective experiences resulting in an unusual clarity. To take from a
human mind and recreate, in a sense, an eidetic image would be impossible; so to this extent, eidetic images cannot be consciously created but they can be
consciously explored1, and through this exploration arises the usefulness of eidetic operations which disclose new design possibilities.
works cited Corner, James. The Landscape Imagination: Collected essays of James Corner, 1990 2010. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014. Print. endnotes 1: Akhter, Ahsen (1977). Psycheye, Self-Analytic Consciousness. New York: Brandon House, Inc. Web.
CRITICAL RESPONSE: PETER ZUMTHOR - A WAY OF LOOKING AT THINGS professor: a.c. martinico history and theory of architecture 111 (arch 2520) university of detroit mercy school of architecture fall 2015
In his Essay, A Way of Looking at Things, Peter Zumthor devotes considerable attention to the question of materiality— he understood it to involve a deeper understanding into the essence or nature of materials, as opposed to the mere proper use of materials. This ‘understanding’ Zumthor ascribes to is accomplished by knowing that there is a particular meaning that can be endowed upon a material when it is used in the correct architectural situation — a meaning which Zumthor claims transcends rules of composition, tangibility, smell, and acoustics and can be found in the “ordinary things of everyday life” as long as we are “looking long enough.” Early in his essay Zumthor examines the role of memory and the memories which should be valued as “the reservoirs of the architectural atmospheres and images,” such as those whose composition instill in us our general sense of ‘what a certain place should be.' Such a place could be a kitchen, hotel pool lobby, pizza place, etc. Though Zumthor’s essay is a bit dreamy and vague, I do consider
it theory; I suppose I personally don’t have a concrete definition for what the necessary components for ‘theory’ are, nonetheless Zumthor’s essay consisted of his own arguments and mandates which he reputed with credible references. Zumthor admittedly attempts to abandon his architectural knowledge to generate more innocent architectural experiences so perhaps it could be said his methods aren’t tangible. However, I find they are still effective, given the fact that the source he draws from is intangible— being the experiences produced by the architectural realm as a result of a precise combination of physical materials and connections. _________ From the section titled, “Preliminary Promises,” Zumthor notes on key concepts concerning the statement made by architectural drawings. Zumthor’s intention with them is “to express as accurately as possible the aura of the building in its intended place.” He argues that the drawing
should not attempt to serve as a substitute for the unconstructed building, but rather should stand as an image of enticement—one that has the viewer longing for the physical presence while also being allowed to fill in “open patches” so as to imagine it in its “final, constructed” form. I think Walter Benjamin would agree that an object, or in this case, the architectural drawing attains a more genuine aura
in correlation to its relevancy as a true reflection of its specific time, place, and society. However, I feel Zumthor’s concept of the aura is more subjective than Benjamin’s, who views the state of an aura as a product of society lessening in authenticity. Zumthor may say societal growth only adds to our perception of drawings, architecture, and other art. Pertaining to their separate approaches of architecture, Benjamin noted that buildings are often experienced in distraction and I think he would say the same about drawings; Zumthor may agree but I don’t think he would be so disdainful about this distraction, as he views it more as a natural human process of collecting memories which serve at the very core of our understanding towards architectural experiences and drawings. Personally, I suppose I would classify Zumthor as a postmodernist with phenomenological concerns. He has a deep expertise for construction and materials which he incorporates into a style that reflects his personal philosophy, as postmodernists are prone to do. Though he has his own intentions, he is still trying to answer as precisely as possible the specific questions that arise from a building’s specific use for which it is built, as well as its specific place within a specific
society. These issues are all heavily doused with phenomenology and it is with careful thought and personal feeling that Zumthor attempts to reconcile them within his architecture. _________ In the essay, Material Practices: Architecture after Semiotics, Stan Allen criticizes architecture that considers itself to be principally narrative or commentary, and thereby most postmodern theoretical discourse; the basis of his argument stands that the movement became a platform from which to “express the human condition,” rather than to improve upon it. Allen defended his rejection of semiotics, claiming it is not a return to the “discredited certainties of high modernism,” his support being that architecture should not exist to stand for something else, but instead should exist “to imagine, to propose, or to construct alternative realities.” In my opinion, Allen’s ideas are similar in comparison to those of Zumthor’s, considering that both men recognize the importance
of working to achieve a certain architecture. This architecture would not only present meaning through its sensory details, but will also work for an interweaving of object and reality within that architecture—to implement the usefulness of true architecture and drawings, as opposed to the uselessness of mimicry and representation.
works cited Zumthor, Peter. Thinking Architecture. Berlin: Birkhauser, 1988. Print
CRITICAL RESPONSE: MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY - EYE AND MIND professor: a.c. martinico history and theory of architecture 111 (arch 2520) university of detroit mercy school of architecture fall 2015
In the first section of the densely articulated work, “Eye and Mind,” translated by Carleton Dallery, the author Maurice Merleau-Ponty distinguishes between ‘scientific thinking’ and the ‘artist’s approach’ in terms of their ability to understand the body. Relative to ‘scientific thinking,’ Merleau-Ponty describes a method which drifts between the two defective margins of empiricism and intellectualism1. He opposes scientific thinking, claiming that the process is far too objectifying in its appraisal of items in question (i.e. the body), thus amounting to an artificial conclusion which fails to address the lived world, as perceived by the body through its relationships with its surroundings. This body, according to Merleau-Ponty, is an intertwining of vision and movement, and it is this body which, in contrast to the scientific thinker, the artist lends in the ambition of simultaneously understanding it and its experiences. This transaction may result in a work of art, or, the artist’s ‘own rumination of the world,’ that is neither rooted in empirical data or a stratified logic, but is nonetheless readily received
as an acceptable representation. To further establish the superiority of the artist’s approach, Merleau-Ponty continues this line of thought in his suggestion that art, as opposed to science, permits a reconnection with immediate experience. This is bolstered by his supporting argument that science ‘looks on from above’ and
so ‘must return to the ‘there is’ which underlies it.’ He continues by explaining that, while specifically referring to painting but perhaps pertinent to all art, that there exists a fundamentality which is permitted by the artist through innocent techniques of just his eyes and hands. This results in a more truly representative display of the act of
viewing the world with openness and immersion, rather than intellectual constraints and objectivity2. _________ In Section [2] of “Eye and Mind,” Maurice Merleau-Ponty examines the idea of space. He claims that the bodily mobility of the artist plays a vital role in the understanding of experience. He further explains that the body and its movement are literally at the center of human perception, ‘holding things in a circle around itself,’ serving as the medium of consciousness. His study also reflects on vision as an extension of the body, and this assertion calls for consciousness to first be embodied if its ambition is to unfold into a real component of this world. MerleauPonty describes this vision as a movement that both extends the body through the act of looking and opens the body to the world through this extension. While in motion, the body is simultaneously seeing and being seen, interpreting consciousness; and so, the body’s motion and consequent vision disables it from being properly viewed solely as a mere materialization of this world and instead establishes its primacy in our relationship to Being. These relationships, as I interpreted, are most truly represented in the practice of
the painter which Merleau-Ponty calls a ‘magical’ theory of vision. This concept describes the merging of the perceiver and observer thus breaking down the distinctions between the subject and the object, the real and the imagined, and enclosure/encapsulation and space. As Leila Wilson of the University of Chicago beautifully explains, “With the endowment of a clairvoyant-like vision, the painter unveils the object, while the object, at the same time, makes itself known. The invisible is made manifest through the painter’s enactment of her vision and the object’s revelation of itself to the painter.” Merleau-Ponty states that “It is impossible to say where nature ends and where man or expression begins.” He provokes the question why an artist would find it logical to capture
reality, from which escape on the artist’s behalf is not evidently criticized anyway, in “light, shadows, reflections, color”, which “are not altogether real objects; like ghosts they have only visual existence.” As artists are ‘moved by’ the world, physically and emotionally, both their response to and recording of this experience also involves a ‘movement of’ the world. Artists rearrange some of its material elements into a new configuration that we call a work of art. Paintings could therefore be seen as a natural by-product of a painter’s act of being-in-the-world, a way of grasping and registering its effects on the artist, at the same time as communicating these effects to others rather than showing what is already seen3.
works cited Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Galen A. Johnson, and Michael B. Smith. The Meleau Ponty aesthetics reader: philosophy and painting. Evanston, IL: Northwestern U Press, 1993. Print. endnotes 1: Reynolds, Jack. “Maurice Merleau-Ponty.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. 21 Oct. 2015. 2: Wilson, Leila. “Eye and Mind,” Annotation.” The University of Chicago, 2003. Web. 21 Oct. 2015. 3: "Eye and Mind." Body of Theory. School of Fine Arts, University of the Creative Arts, 31 Mar. 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2015
CRITICAL RESPONSE: MARCO FRASCARI: THE TELL-THE-TALE DETAIL professor: a.c. martinico history and theory of architecture 111 (arch 2520) university of detroit mercy school of architecture fall 2015
In the beginnings of his essay, “The Tell-the-Tale Detail,” architect Marco Frascari writes, “Elusive in a traditional dimensional definition, the architectural detail can be defined as the union of construction, the result of the logos of techne, with construing, the result of the techne of logos.” In the Greek language, logos refers to the discourse or the communication of thought through conversation, while techne refers to the practice of making an object using previously gained knowledge1. The logos of techne can be understood as a conversation about making and constructing; the techne of logos should be understood as the counterpart, or as the making of conversation. Both of these concepts constitute the meaningful discussion which leads to the understanding of meaning in itself; He argues that the success of the details lie not only in their performative abilities (to construct), but also in its ability to reveal another order (to construe)2. This may be read as an affirmation of Heideggerian thought, as Heidegger referred to the success of
techne lying not in manufacturing but rather in revealing. _________ Frascari considers the detail as ‘the minimal unit’ of signification in the
building on the basis that details are the “most important means for avoiding building failure” and that the architect can utilize the detail to harmonize even “the most uncommon and… disorderly
environment generated by a culture.” Frascari is using the term “signification” perhaps in both the semiotic sense and as an ordinary language. For example in sense of the latter, I believe Frascari argues that details should share, as well as convey, a common language; a broad example would include the translation of floor to wall and how it should express itself as an articulated detail, but it should also reveal the nature of that wall itself3. In the semiotic sense, Frascari specifically references the architecture of Carlo Scarpa, such as how his solution of “clipping off the blue of the sky,” achieved with a corner of mirrors is a direct manipulation of sunlight through a white wall. Scarpa explains it is necessary to be speculative (as supposedly prompted by details), and “to have what I call wit, an attentive tension toward understanding all that is happening.” It is through such a spatial detail as this that illustrates Frascari’s point about their superior position (over the plan) of power to generate the building, as well as to generate signs in the semiotic sense. Details play the role of which they divulge elemental characteristics and, if used properly, produce a revelation of a larger order. _________
Frascari’s examination of the “detail” considers the concept in many lights, the most focused being on the detail as a joint. Additionally, Frascari reflects on the detail in its conventional role to express tectonic clarity, that is, how the detail serves to resolve issues of gravity, material and assembly4. Another expansion on the role of the detail is its responsibility to retain its clarity of meaning during transference from {the craftsman to the architect}, and later from {the drawn, virtual detail to the built, actual detail}. I don’t think the detail is expected to hold an enduring meaning that transcends all others, because I think that would be impossible considering the innumerable subjective meanings that arise from person to person; in this sense, I think Frascari was saying the detail shouldn’t be
concerned in a strictly definitive matter nor as a ‘correct translation,’ but maybe a correct interpretation is what is desired. Criticism is often directed at Frascari for placing too much importance on the joint and its role in design. Personally, I feel not too much emphasis should be placed on any one realm of design in general, but I do think Frascari has legitimate grounds for his proposal. I mostly take away the importance of the design of detail in space, or how it should be defined through construction. Or, perhaps in today’s terms, in order to convey more meaningful architecture it would be advised to spend more initial design-energy in digital modeling and 3-dimensional spatial detailing rather than through plan and ‘less spatial’ methods of design and utilization of technology.
works cited Frascari, Marco. "The Tell-the-Tale Detail." Semiotics 1981 (1983): 325-36. Web. endnotes 1: Schwartz, Chad. "Preface." Wordpress.org. 8 Nov. 2014. Web. 3 Nov. 2015. 2, 3, 4: Roehrl, Marc. "Who Already Does this Better? Mass Prod. Customization." Acsa.arch.org. 2010. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
KELLY BUCZNIEWICZ design portfolio (m.arch)