Thesis Book by Kevin Geraghty

The Architectural Unseen

by Kevin J. Geraghty

Poche'

The Architectural Unseen By Kevin J. Geraghty

Bachelor of Architecture Thesis Advisors: Jonathan Foote & Umut Toker College of Architecture & Environmental Design California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, California ÂŠ 2016 Kevin J. Geraghty All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be produced in any form or by any copying means without permission from the author. Errors or omissions will be corrected in future editions. Printed and bound in the United States.

Fig. [1] Column Detail by Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi

ABSTRACT

Solidity in architecture embodies the potential to be inhabited physically as well as imaginatively. As the walls of a building occupy the gap between the spaces in which we are conscious, they embody the unseen conditions of buildings and of human nature. While pre-modern architecture was made of thick walls that foster the mind and the body, modern architecture fails to do so due to contemporary construction methods. his thesis is concerned with how to make thick walls in modern architecture as a way to inhabit solidity. his invites a world into the unseen as explored through pochĂŠ.

Fig. [2] Section, Grande Salle du Chateau de Pierrefonds

THINKING SOLIDITY

DIVINITY

INVISIBILITIES

APPARITIONS

MAKING PLASTER CARVING

ABSTRACT PRESENTATION

PHANTOM

SITUATING SITE

PROGRAM

IDEOGRAMS

A PLAY

SECTIONAL CONDITIONS

STUDY MODEL

BUTTERFLY MODEL

THINKING MACHINES

INTRODUCTION

Poché is a fundamental term in architectural drawing; to ‘poché’ is to graphically ill in the uninhabitable spaces that consist of internal building stuf which nobody cares to know about. he areas that become poché’d tend to be the interstitial or letover spaces that emerge between livable spaces. herefore, poché is a means of covering the elements and spaces we choose to ignore; structure, utilities and other cache.1 As poché becomes the blacked-in areas of an architectural drawing, it serves to emphasize normative aspects of a building such as its spatial layout. Consequently, Poché is occulted and exists beyond our awareness. he term, poché, is derived from the poking technique done with a pencil to apply ine dots to areas that are designated as being inside something.2 What’s more is the architectural term, poché, is derived from the french word for pocket. Analogous to the pocket, poché is the intrinsic, invisible space used to hold or hide the stuf that is most internal to a person, their dwelling, and their culture. 1-2. Lahiji, Nadir, and Daniel S. Friedman. “Poché.” Donald Kunze. Plumbing: Sounding Modern Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural, 1997. 148. Print.

Fig. [3] British Castle Floor Plan Sketches by Louis I. Kahn 3. Crow, Jason. (2014). Fear and Bernard of Clairvauxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Living Stones. Room One housand, 2. ucbarchitecture_ rm1000_24889.

THINKING: SOLIDITY

In architectural drawing, poché is perceived as solidity; the mass of material. Poché is dominant when a building consists of solid, massive materials such as earth, stone, brick, and concrete. hese thick materials create ‘subtractive spaces’ in which halls and chambers are carved into and through large walls.3 hrough his studies of Scottish castles, Louis Kahn observes that their thick walls distinguish between ‘served’ and ‘servant spaces’ for they possess “great central living halls and auxiliary spaces nestled into thick outside walls.”4 Moreover, these studies inspired his modern work such as the Fisher house in which the thickened facade creates deep window recessions which allow for an open window during a heavy rainstorm.5 Subtracting from solid material was used even at a detailed scale in the ancient practice of anathyrosis; in which the exterior faces of stone were inished and smoothed to create precise joints to meet adjacent stones without mortar. While the exterior faces of the stone are treated, the interior of the stone is recessed and a miniature room is carved out to create space for a pin connection. 4-5. Lucarelli, Fosco, and Mariabruna Fabrizi. “Walls as Rooms: British Castles and Louis Khan - SOCKS.” SOCKS. N.p., 06 Apr. 2012. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

THINKING: SOLIDITY

In designing with solid materials,

and thinking. As the architect adds poché, material is allocated; and as the architect erases poché, space is formed. hus, this subtractive way of working is a process of discovery that enables perpetual decisionmaking. Michelangelo emblematizes this

Fig. [4] Cutaway Drawing of Anathyrosis

the use of poché becomes a way of working

way of working in his sculptures, he Slaves. While the form of the sculpture emerges from the blocks of marble, he’s

by carving.6 Areas of substantial poché correlate to areas of substantial material and weight. Historically, the architectural quality of weight resonates with the human condition. Vitruvius deines this virtue as irmitas in his three-part architectural rubric, Firmitas, Utilitas et Venustas which translates to Strength, Utility, and Beauty.7 Heavy buildings are grounded in the earth as they convey signiicance and permanence. hick architectural elements possess a capacity that allows one to project themselves into its solidity. In his essay, ‘he Weight,’ Michael Cadwell describes Coop Himmelb(l)au’s BMW Welt in Munich; “here 6. Crow, Jason. (2014). Fear and Bernard of Clairvaux’s Living Stones. Room One housand, 2. 7. Pollio, Vitruvius, M. H. Morgan, Herbert Langford Warren, and Nelson Robinson. Vitruvius: Ten Books on Architecture. Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar, 2008. Print.

Fig. [5] he Slaves by Michelangelo

able to see, think, and make changes

is weight up there, we can see it. Deeper within the building, where the roof bellies out, the structure is clearly visible and the cladding is darker, ominous. here is weight up there, we can feel it.”8 Cadwell projects himself into the thick poché of the roof as if he can inhabit it. Dr. Paul Emmons explains the phenomenon of inhabiting solidity in his essay, A Window to the Soul: Depth in Early Modern Section Drawing; “Solidity is an idea that is received primarily from touch - present not so much to the eye as through a solid pushing back against one’s hand. A solid body touches us as we touch it. he psychological import of solidity, then, is the awareness of the other while at the same time the empathetic projection of a self, an other, within the solid.”9 People are able to inhabit solidity as they project themselves into the poché.

Fig. [6] BMW Welt. Munich, Germany. Coop Hiimelb(l)au 8. Cadwell, Michael. “he Weight.” Log. Vol. 21. N.p.: Anyone Corporation, 2011. 47-52. Print. 9. Kunze, Donald, Charles Bertolini, and Simone Brott. “A Window to the Soul: Depth in Early Modern Section Drawing.” Paul Emmons. Architecture Post Mortem: he Diastolic Architecture of Decline, Dystopia, and Death. Print.

Fig. [8] Section, Holy Rosary Church

Fig. [7] Holy Rosary Church

THINKING: SOLIDITY

HOLY ROSARY CHURCH: TRAHAN ARCHITECTS

he Holy Rosary Church located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, designed by Trahan Architects exempliies the beauty and beneits of solidity in modern architecture. As the interior geometry of this samll structure directly opposes its exterior geometry, thick walls are utilized to resolve the diference. he result is a space that seems to be subtracted from solid stone. he thickness of the material provides great potential within the pochĂŠ; Material is carved out from the walls so that light may inhabit the pochĂŠ. hick walls make for thick thresholds such as a deep entryway and long skylights. hickened thresholds serve to remove dwellers far from the outside world as they enter a space of solitude and silence.

Fig. [9] Plan, Holy Rosary Church

Fig. [11] Interior, Holy Rosary Church

Fig. [10] Skylight, Holy Rosary Church

THINKING: SOLIDITY

Fig. [12] Details of Door, Holy Rosary Church

HOLY ROSARY CHURCH: TRAHAN ARCHITECTS

Fig. [13] Sketch, Hotel herme Vals, Peter Zumthor

THINKING: SOLIDITY

HOTEL THERME VALS: PETER ZUMTHOR

Zumthorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unbuilt project, Hotel herme Vals, is an exploration of carving spaces out of thick material. hrough the utilization of mindful drawing and modeling techniques, Zumthor explores the spatial phenomenon of embodying mass. His study models are done by carving wax to understand subtractive ways of making and representing architecture. he resulting design exhibits a series of spaces that navigate through a maze of

Fig. [14] Conceptual Plan, Hotel herme Vals, Peter Zumthor

thick walls.

THINKING: SOLIDITY

Fig. [15] Carved Wax Model, Hotel herme Vals

HOTEL THERME VALS: PETER ZUMTHOR

Fig. [16] Carved Wax Model, Hotel herme Vals

Fig. [17] Drawing, herme Vals, Peter Zumthor

THINKING: SOLIDITY

THERME VALS: PETER ZUMTHOR

In Zumthor’s conceptual drawings of herme Vals, poché embodies much more then just mass. Poché is a multi-dimensional means to see many diferent aspects of architecture; light, air, water, and atmosphere are all types of poché. hese qualities are treated as material and is expressed as such through drawing. In this way, poché isn’t solid; it’s permeable as if one can inhabit it. he density of poché dissolves, signifying a change in atmosphere as one senses a gradiency from interiority to exteriority. Diferent atmospheric qualities are further distinguished through the use of color as poché. As these ways of poché are continuous throughout the design process, the resulting place is one of intense material embodiment.

Fig. [18] Model, herme Vals, Peter Zumthor

Fig. [19] Drawing, herme Vals, Peter Zumthor

THINKING: SOLIDITY

Fig. [20] Drawing, herme Vals, Peter Zumthor

THERME VALS: PETER ZUMTHOR

Fig. [21] Body in Column. Giorgio Martini 10. Cruz, Marco. “he Inhabitable Flesh of Architecture.” (Book, 2013) [WorldCat.org]. Singapore Architect, 9 Mar. 2009. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

THINKING: DIVINITY

he architects of the past worked thoughtfully with poché due to their pallet of solid materials and construction methods. As a result of their deep poché thinking, many buildings of the past are bodily conscious.10 Premodern buildings have thick walls and therefore have great capacity to foster the human condition. As pre-modern architecture was constructed with thick materials, they were made with much poché that foster the mind and the body. Within the poché may exist objects that were once encased in the walls during construction and are thereater invisible to anyone. Immuration was a pre-construction ritual of the ancient world to sacriice a person and enclose their body within the foundations of a soon-to-be erected building so that their spirit may protect the irmitas of the future building.11 As Paul Emmons puts it, “To immure is to enclose within a wall; not in a room, but where body literally becomes wall.”12 he ancient belief that the structure of a building is derived from human life which has been embedded within the poché is exempliied in 11-12. Kunze, Donald, Charles Bertolini, and Simone Brott. “A Window to the Soul: Depth in Early Modern Section Drawing.” Paul Emmons. Architecture Post Mortem: he Diastolic Architecture of Decline, Dystopia, and Death. Print.

Fig. [22] Illustration of the Ballad of Master Manole

THINKING: DIVINITY

the Romanian myth of Master Manole.13 In the Ballad of Mesterful Manole, a Wallachian prince, the Black Prince, hired nine masons and their master, Manole, to build the most beautiful monastery thats ever been built. However, during construction their walls kept collapsing once they reached the desired height. Ater some failures, one night Manole had a dream in which he was demanded to make a sacriice in order to make the church walls strong enough to inish the construction of the monastery. He was to sacriice the irst woman to walk by the construction site on the following day and entrap her body within the walls. It just so happens that the irst woman to come to the construction site was Manoleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife, to bring him his lunch. No matter this unfortunate coincidence, Manole and his masons immured his wife into the walls of the church. he place of immurement can still be seen between two walls of the southern front side of the church.14 he monastery was then completed and the prince was satisied with its beauty. 13-14. Dundes, Alan. he Walled-up Wife: A Casebook. Madison, WI: U of Wisconsin, 1996. Print. 15-17. Frazer, James George. he Golden Bough; a Study in Magic and Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1951. Print.

However, to assure that a more beautiful church never be constructed again, the prince ordered that the scafolding be removed while Manole and his masons were on the roof, stranding them up there with no means of getting down. Manole and his masons tried to make themselves lying devices to carry them down to safety. However, the devices failed and they fell to their death. Sometimes, builders did not need to use an actual body for sacriice because a victim’s captured shadow will suice. he Roumanians of Transylvania believed that a man’s soul could be stolen by measuring his shadow with a string.15 he string, bearing the transference magic of the shadow, could then be buried within the foundation stone. A builder may also lay a foundation stone upon a man’s shadow to immure him. People passing by a construction site may hear a warning cry, “Beware lest they take thy shadow!”16 he owner of the shadow would eventually sicken and die and the angry ghost would haunt the building and guard it against enemy intrusions. In he Golden Bough, James Frazer tells the tale; “Not long ago there were still shadow-traders whose business it was to provide architects with the shadows necessary for securing their walls. In these cases the measure of the shadow is looked on as equivalent to the shadow itself, and to bury it is to bury the life or soul of the man, who, deprived of it, must die.” he people of Banks Islands called certain remarkably long stones “eating ghosts,” because these stones were being occupied by powerful and dangerous ghosts who would get very hungry.17 If a person’s shadow were to fall across an “eating ghost,” the stone would suck out their soul and they 22

THINKING: DIVINITY

would die. hese stones were set in houses to guard it from intruders and thieves. Ancient builders enclosed human life within their walls to give strength and stability to the building or to protect it from enemies for they believed that the poché embodies the spiritual. In Jason Crow’s abstract, Fear and Bernard of Clairvaux’s Living Stones, the use of stone is seen as a material instrument that contains divine qualities; “stone was crucial in the Middle Ages for understanding how and why matter could become a container of divinity.”18 Stones were believed to be magical as they contained within their poché; “rocks, bits of glass, amber, and other materials that were miraculously the eicient cause of change.”19 he most miraculous stone was the magnet, for it attracts other matter to it. his movement caused by the hidden qualities within the poché “was evidence of a direct relationship between divine power and the terrestrial realm.”20 To the builders of the middle ages, the stone was a conduit for God’s presence in the world. his belief is further demonstrated by a stone’s capacity to contain light within its poché. Marco Frascari deines this palpable presence of light within the material as lume materiale - “something born in the materials of construction and imprisoned in the body of an ediice as the mind is imprisoned in the body of a man.”21 While poché is typically blacked-in as it is thought of as dead mass, it is actually the retainer of light and therefore embodies the absence of darkness. As Frascari writes; “...that there is light simply means that the psyche is not idle but produces phantoms, even if only in a dream.” 22 18-20. Crow, Jason. (2014). Fear and Bernard of Clairvaux’s Living Stones. Room One housand, 2. 21-22. Frascari, Marco. “he Lume Materiale in the Architecture of Venice.” Perspecta. 24 (1988): 136. Web.

Fig. [23] Immurement of a nun (ictitious depiction in a painting from 1868)

Fig. [24] Wall section through unseen spaces, A Library for Forbidden Books, Kevin Geraghty.

THINKING: INVISIBILITIES

Poché oten emerges as unexpected interstitial or let-over space existing between livable spaces. It’s shape may arise as an inevitable side consequence of some other architectural decisions. In the essay, Architectural Parallax, Slavoj Zizek shines light on this interstitial space; “Inside and Outside never cover the entire space: there is always an excess of a third space which gets lost in the division into Outside and Inside.”23 Although we oten resort to senselessly pochéing these lost ‘third’ spaces, they play a crucial role in architecture as they harbor the depths of our unconscious. While poché separates our cognizant spaces with a speciic form of invisibility, poché maintains the invisible means necessary to allow an unencumbered nature to exist in our buildings. Kunze writes of poché as; “hidden spaces, as ‘lying between’ and ‘lying hidden’ within perception and conception of an architectural idea”24 for they embody “the means by which architecture becomes understandable as an idea, as well as the place where an idea is encountered as architecture.”25 While poché tends to exist 23-24. Zizek, Slavoj. “Architectural Parallax: Spandrels and Other Phenomena of Class Struggles.” How to Read Lacan RSS. Lacan Dot Com, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2015. 25. Lahiji, Nadir, and Daniel S. Friedman. “Poché.” Donald Kunze. Plumbing: Sounding Modern Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural, 1997. 148. Print.

THINKING: INVISIBILITIES

beyond our awareness, it contains the contents of our unconscious. Poché is a gap in our consciousness which serves as the passage to an unseen world. It embodies the spaces that we rely on yet we ignore. For example, bathrooms and mechanical spaces are contained in between the narrow spaces of walls and loors. We all know these interstitial spaces exist yet we don’t really accept their existence. Poché contains things we are aware of yet we refuse to acknowledge - that which we don’t know that we know.26 As Zizek puts it, “It is with these, unknown knowns, that design deals.”27 We have a natural tendency to ignore these spaces as we treat them as unspeakable. hey are abstracted from our daily relations. As poché indicates stuf unseen or hidden, it possesses meanings of secrecy and the unspoken, for these spaces correlate with certain subjects of our nature which make us uncomfortable. Zizek describes this space as “the Beyond where shit disappears.”28 He elaborates: “he main content of this invisible space is excrement (canalization). We of course know well how excrements leave the house, but our immediate phenomenological relation to it is a more radical one: it is as if shit disappears into some netherworld, out of our sight and out of our world. (his is why one of the most unpleasant experiences is to observe the shit coming back from the hole in the toilet bowl - it is something like the return of the living dead.) ...And the domain where excrements vanish ater we lush the toilet is efectively one of the metaphors for the horrifyingly-sublime Beyond of the primordial, preontological Chaos into which things disappear. Although we rationally know what goes on with the excrements, the imaginary mystery nonetheless persists shit remains an excess which does not it our daily reality.”29

26-29. Zizek, Slavoj. “Architectural Parallax: Spandrels and Other Phenomena of Class Struggles.” How to Read Lacan RSS. Lacan Dot Com, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

Fig. [25] Shawshank Redemption. Film. The protagonist escapes prison through a sewage pipe.

While poché is generally thought of as the uninhabitable area inside of impenetrable solidity, it oten consists of subtracted voids within walls, or pockets. Kunze observes that these pocket spaces include wall niches, cabinets, secret passageways, and the like.30 Furthermore, poché can also be inverted in what Zizek calls ‘virtual poché’.31 his virtual poché appears to have the large thickness of ‘pochéd walls’ but is actually void. “If ‘poché’ designates the carving of halls and chambers into an actual thick wall, ‘virtual poché’ stands for a spatial disposition of (normal thin) walls which creates the illusion that the space delineated by these walls is enveloped by (or carved into) a thick wall.”32 Poché spaces are invisible to the unknowing yet they are the most internal spaces to those who are well-acquainted. hese unseen spaces consist of the attic or a closet. hey may contain the mundane, everyday stuf that is all-to-familiar to a person or anything one wishes to keep hidden. As Dr. Donald Kunze airms in his essay titled Poché; “Architecture 30. Lahiji, Nadir, and Daniel S. Friedman. “Poché.” Donald Kunze. Plumbing: Sounding Modern Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural, 1997. 148. Print. 31-32. Zizek, Slavoj. “Architectural Parallax: Spandrels and Other Phenomena of Class Struggles.” How to Read Lacan RSS. Lacan Dot Com, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

THINKING: INVISIBILITIES

is a relationship between the visible and invisible. It is a means of occultation.”33 Historically, the occulted space between walls have been used as secret corridors for servants while the space underneath loorboards and above ceilings have been used to harbor people, such as Jewish people in Natzi-occupied Europe. Inasmuch as these spaces are in themselves invisible, they embody the invisibilities of humanity. Poché reveals deep truths that are silenced in our culture yet embedded in our architecture. If architecture is the materialization of an ideology then poché is the ‘repressed truth’ of an ideology. Poché is the spatial counterpart to the unsayable and unseen aspects of a culture as it contains the things and people our society wishes to exclude from our reality. For example, the second Palmer House Hotel in Chicago was designed with a separate entryway for women while he Chicago heater was designed with a back-ally ticket booth along with invisible corridors for African-Americans to use. hese exclusions of our reality are embedded in our architecture in the form of poché. For poché is the materialization of our disavowed beliefs. It is a container for our secret obscene beliefs to which we are not explicitly committed. he paradox is that these neglected spaces are actually the most telling of human nature. Using a phrase by William Blake, Donald Kunze describes poché as the darkness that shines through the light.34 Furthermore, Kunze expresses the paradoxical nature of poché with an analogy about the relationship between a master and servant; “he Master’s demand for recognition can only be satisied through the role of the servant who has opted out of the system. he 33-35. Lahiji, Nadir, and Daniel S. Friedman. “Poché.” Donald Kunze. Plumbing: Sounding Modern Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural, 1997. 148. Print.

servant is exiled into the ‘invisibilities’ of service entrances and back rooms. Paradoxically, the externalized Servant has access to the most internal spaces, a poché surrounding the master’s body and daily activities.”35 A servant to a master, a bellhop of a hotel, or an usher of a theater are all personiications of poché. hey are the extremely functional yet invisible means which people, institutions, and societies depend upon.

Fig. [26] The second Palmer House; Ladies entrance

Fig. [27] Column Detail by Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi

36. Kunze, Donald, Charles Bertolini, and Simone Brott. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Window to the Soul: Depth in Early Modern Section Drawing.â&#x20AC;? Paul Emmons. Architecture Post Mortem: he Diastolic Architecture of Decline, Dystopia, and Death. Print.

THINKING: APPARITIONS

Within the poché lives secret life. While poché may not be a place for public or even physical occupation, it invites a deeper imaginative inhabitation.36 In he Buildings and Designs of Andrea Palladio drawn by Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, column details sometimes include vignettes of other worlds existing within the poché. In place of a typically blacked-in area are illustrations of scenes of boating on the canal or a bottle of wine and glasses. Scamozzi projects his imagination into the poché of these columns. Poché is oten a place for our imaginations to live. Much iction in the form of novels, ilms, and plays are oten inspired by what may exist within the poché. As poché is generally perceived as dark and enigmatic, it makes for a good home where monsters, phantoms, and many other collective fears live. Zizek writes, “no wonder that, in scienceiction, horror ilms and techno-thrillers, this dark space between walls is the space where horrible threats lurk (from spying machines to monsters or contagious animals like cockroaches and rats).”37 One example of such iction is the novel/play/ilm, Phantom of the Opera, originally written 37. Zizek, Slavoj. “Architectural Parallax: Spandrels and Other Phenomena of Class Struggles.” How to Read Lacan RSS. Lacan Dot Com, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

THINKING: APPARITIONS

by Gaston Leroux. he antagonist of the story was born so horrendously deformed that he is exiled into the unseen, into the poché of society. His chosen asylum is the Paris Opera House, which paradoxically was designed as a place for people to see and to be seen.38 As Walter Benjamin wrote about the Garnier opera Palace in Paris; “the true focus of the opera is not the performance hall but the wide oval staircase on which high society ladies display their fashion and gentlemen meet for a causal smoke.”39 As the antagonist carries out his life in the depths of the poché, he becomes a phantom, rousing the fears of the theater goer’s with ghostly acts of malice. His occulted acts transform the Paris Opera for the roles of stage and poché are inverted. he unseen spaces such as the ly tower, catwalks, and underground passageways become the place of performance. he Phantom of the Opera is born from Leroux’s imaginative projection into the poché. he poché is a place of wonder in which ghost stories become architectural tales. Although poché is generally unnoticed, these hidden spaces play a crucial role in architecture, culture, and history; Donald Kunze airms that poché is especially signiicant “where this erasure, suspension, or exhaustion of intention has a political or aesthetic efect: the space of servants or marginalized people; the invisibility of slums; the perverse visuality of ruins.”40 If poché is what Kunze describes as the “spatial counterpart to the suppressed content of consciousness,” then perhaps poché can be revealed to invite a world into the unseen. hings that architecture typically hides could 38-39. Unwin, Simon. Analysing Architecture. London: Routledge, 1997. Print. 40. Lahiji, Nadir, and Daniel S. Friedman. “Poché.” Donald Kunze. Plumbing: Sounding Modern Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural, 1997. 148. Print.

be celebrated. Architecture can re-include these spaces of our unconscious in a purposeful form so people understand the function that such spaces play individually, culturally, and historically. Architects can create direct access to “things (the way they are) in themselves.”41 Zizek acknowledges the importance of poché, “hese ‘interstitial spaces’ are thus the proper place for utopian dreaming - they remind us of architecture’s great politico-ethical responsibility: much more is at stake in design than it may appear.”42

Fig. [28] Section Drawings. L’Opera Paris. Charles Garnier

Fig. [29] he Phantom of the Opera. Film Adaptation. he Phantom is seen in the ly tower of the theater. 41-42. Zizek, Slavoj. “Architectural Parallax: Spandrels and Other Phenomena of Class Struggles.” How to Read Lacan RSS. Lacan Dot Com, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

MAKING: PLASTER CARVING

hese explorations are an attempt to further my thinking through the making of material things. his stage involves experiments that generate ideas while communicating the potential of this thesis. For instance, this experiment irst addresses the questions of working with mass and void through the process of casting and carving plaster. hen, the resulting artifacts are transformed into drawings to explore the notion that solidity, when man-made, is not dead or uninhabitad; rather it is impregnated with the human imagination.

MAKING: PLASTER CARVING

IMAGE COLLAGES

MAKING: ABSTRACT PRESENTATION

Poché is typically a means of covering the elements and spaces we choose to ignore. However, this study explores the potential of poché as it is revealed through the act of stamping a fully ‘poché’d’ block. he series of the resultant footprints show that poché is not just a black and white matter.

MAKING: ABSTRACT PRESENTATION

DETERIOTATION . CIRCLE. INK.

DISSIPATION. GRAPHITE.

STAMPS AND THEIR MARKS

DETERIOTATION. RECTANGLE. INK.

DISSIPATION. INK.

MAKING: ABSTRACT PRESENTATION

MULTIPLICITY. INK.

STAMPS AND THEIR MARKS

INVERSION. CMU BLOCK. INK.

MAKING: PHANTOM

A line in space becomes a phantom servant Displaying the identity of an invisible character Telling the story of a time and place he servant becomes the served

MAKING: PHANTOM

STUDY MODELS

MAKING: PHANTOM

FABRICATION PROCESS

MAKING: PHANTOM

PROTOTYPES

MAKING: PHANTOM

Fig. [30] he site; tucked between the Randolph Tower, once called the Steuben Bldg., and the Commerce Commission.

SITUATING: SITE

his investigation takes place in the city of Chicago, Illinois - a palimpsest of modern architecture. More than any other city, Chicago possesses the greatest variety of poché in its architecture, culture, and history. Chicago is ground-zero for the transformation of thick, masontry buildings to thin, steel-frame buildings. Testimonies of architectural history such as Daniel Burnham’s Monadnock Building and Mies van der Rohe’s Lake Shore Drive apartments coexist as they both still participate in the life of the city. More speciically, this thesis zooms in on downtown Chicago, to the North Loop heater District. he NLTD is rich in culture for it’s home to many theaters and hotels while it’s the epicenter of Chicago’s widely used public transportation system, the CTA. he very site on which this thesis will materialize is located across W. Randolph St. from the Cadillac Palace heatre and the Hotel Allegro. his site is tucked in between the immensely tall Randolph Tower and the Commerce Commission, serving as a piece of urban poché.

SITUATING: SITE

MAP OF THE NORTH LOOP THEATER DISTRICT

SITUATING: SITE

Fig. [31] Perspectival overview of Downtown Chicago hugged by the Chicago River.

Fig. [32] Perspectival overview of the Randolph st. block on which this thesis is located.

CONTEXTUAL IMAGERY

Fig. [33] Photograph of the L line intersection of the CTA, located next to the site on Randolph Street.

N. LASALLE ST.

RANDOLPH ST.

Fig. [36] Site

Fig. [34] Photograph of the Chicago heater

SITUATING: PROGRAM

he materialization of this research takes the form of a theater school for the following reasons: Out of all the building typologies, theaters and performance venues are the foremost embodiment of the idea of being seen. People go to theaters to make a public appearance and show of their public image. Furthermore, actors and actresses display the essence of a role, a character they’re representing. heaters have myriad unexpected interstitial spaces to hide all the stuf needed in order to maintain its visible ideology. Slavoj Zizek claims that the real magic of these building types is the dramatic sense of place in the ‘letover’ spaces.43 Furthermore, with the observation that there already exists many theaters in the North Loop heater District, perhaps a more fresh and interesting exempliication of poché would be a theater school. A place in which all the hidden things transpire prior to the big revealing on stage. A school that embodies many diferent types of stages and performance spaces as well as a place where people live and study possesses a great spectrum of poché types.

43. Zizek, Slavoj. “Architectural Parallax: Spandrels and Other Phenomena of Class Struggles.” How to Read Lacan RSS. Lacan Dot Com, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

SITUATING: IDEOGRAMS

Rendering. Randolph Tower. Chicago, IL.

Drawing. Terra Cotta Details. Randolph Tower. Chicago, IL.

Drawing. Civic Opera House. Chicago, IL.

Section Drawing. Carnegie Hall. William Tuthill.

Elevated Train System. Market Terminal. Chicago, IL.

COLLAGE OF CONTEXTUAL IMAGERY

SITUATING: IDEOGRAMS

COLLAGE OF CONTEXTUAL IMAGERY

SITUATING: A PLAY

Visitors to this theater school participate in a series of acts. Each act explores the relationship between a fabricated world and a hidden world. Diferent types of boundary conditions transmit the existence of the others while maintaining the secrecy of the their worlds. In the following diagrams, the fabricated world, or that of the visitors, is represented in blue while the hidden world, which is inhabited by theater students, is represented in red.

SITUATING: A PLAY

Act I. Parallax Stair: A grand stair, a place to see and to be seen, is entangled with another stair which emerges from the hidden world, becomes an ephemeral stage and disappears again.

DIAGRAMS OF ACTS

Act II. Curtain Labyrinth: A detour into a maze of diaphanous boundaries

Act III. Abyss heater: A chasm that emphasizes the diference between audience and performer.

Act IV. Deception Bridge: An unencumbered pass through the hidden world. 72

SITUATING: A PLAY

Act V. Dichotomous Descent: Two means of egress that never meet while both acts of descent are viewed by the other.

DIAGRAMS OF ACTS

Act VI. Unseen Hall: A hall is lanked by parallel walls with obfuscated windows which allow the hidden world to look down on the visitors as they exit.

SITUATING: SECTIONAL CONDITIONS

SITUATING: STUDY MODEL

SITUATING: BUTTERFLY MODEL

SITUATING: THINKING MACHINES

U (

D O

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

A M

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SITUATING: THINKING MACHINES

PUBLIC WORLD // ATRIUM

SITUATING: THINKING MACHINES

STUDENT WORLD // CORRIDOR

SITUATING: THINKING MACHINES

STUDENT WORLD // DANCE STUDIO

SITUATING: THINKING MACHINES

BOUNDARY CONDITION // ‘GRAND’ STAIR

SITUATING: THINKING MACHINES

LONGITUDINAL SECTION

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SITUATING: THINKING MACHINES

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TRANSVERSE SECTION

THANKS

Paul Emmons, this way of thinking of invisible things was born in your studio and seminar at the WAAC. hank you for setting me on an exceedingly fascinating path into the shadows. Jonathan Foote, as you worked with me to construct the foundation of this thesis you showed me how to absolve the gap between thinking and making. hank you for teaching me to stay close to the materials. Umut Toker, you pushed me to manifest my research into a cohesive project. hank you for your encouragement, support, and insight throughout the design process.

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