Mobius

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Mรถbius House, Ben van Berkel + Caroline Bos (a continuum)

foreword

BIG CATCH IMAGE

In 1993, UN Studio embarked on a six-year project to design and build “a house that would be acknowledged as a reference for the renovation of the architectural language”. The scheme to convey this new language was found in the Möbius band, a diagram studied by the astrologist and mathematician, August Ferdinand Möbius throughout the 19th Century. By twisting and joining corners of a singular rectangular strip of paper, the Möbius loop produces a one-sided surface in a continuous curve, without a left, right, beginning or end.

Programme is integrated seamlessly within the house, both in terms of circulation and structure. The organisation of the building is based the intertwining trajectory of the loop, which relates to the 24-hour living and working cycle of the occupants, where individual working spaces and bedrooms run in parallel but communal spaces are situated at the crossing points of the paths. The perception of movement is reinforced by the changing position of materials, which continually overlap and switch places. As the loop turns inside out, the exterior concrete shell becomes interior furniture; the interior partition walls turn into glass façade...

The contortions and twists go beyond the mathematical diagram, although continue to make reference to the infiniteness of the Möbius. These concepts are further demonstrated through the appropriations seen in transformations one and two. The initial transformation examines the paradox of the Möbius under new extremes in terms of form and flow, the second begins to examine the possibilities for hybridisation between internal and external space.

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1

This set of diagrams should be read as a series. They explain the decomposition of the existing house to the underlying patterns of flow and circulation (also explored through the second diagram) ( e x i s t i n g flow and c i r c u l a t i o n )

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3

4

5

+ 1 relates to the continuous 24-hour living and working cycle of the buildings occupants. The diagram highlights the lack of direct focus on any one area, the various living, working and resting spaces are seamlessly integrated. + 2 + 3 visualise the breakdown of the house’s program and inhabitation in order to move towards a greater understanding of the underlying concepts of the MÜbius. + 4 increasingly refers to the double-locked torus and intertwining trajectory on which the building is based + 5 forms the basis for the following transformations.

It promotes floors, walls and ceilings becoming one continuous element (hybridisation)

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evolution ev.o.lu.tion n.

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2.

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The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

The gradual development of something, esp. from a simple to a more complex form * - the forms of written languages undergo constant evolution A pattern of movements or maneuvers* - silk ribbons waving in fanciful evolution

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ÀVUW WUDQVIRUPDWLRQ In this initial transformation, the infiniteness of the Möbius is demonstrated. The continuity and form become increasingly complex as extra twists are added and the form evolves. In each instance, the spatial twist can be fully experienced- surfaces are treated as walls, ceilings and floors- all simultaneously. The unanimous relationship between the inside and the outside is also in a continual state of change.

5 4 3 2

1 Fifth Twist Curves becoming increasingly angular and defined. Reaching limit in number of twists before Möbius concept is lost.

Fourth Twist most interesting form so far.

Tighter twists indicative of the creation of rooms and formal space

Third Twist Unique form beginning to take shape. Curves become individual rather then symmetrical

Second Twist retains the ‘loose’ quality of the first twist. Element of symmetry begin to arrise.

First Twist basis for the design of the original Möbius pavilion

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PRGHO r e s p o n s i v e The resulting form promotes a ‘responsive-architecture’ defined by a desire to act, and to (inter)act .

To activate, to generate, to express, to move, to exchange... on both a macro and human scale.

Promoting responsive interactions, encouraging movements rather than positions.

In this structure, previously meaningless lines become surfaces, which are further transformed into a volume. This one fluid gesture defines how a visitor may move through the space. The development from space to place is related to the idea of changing from an external physical space, of any character, to an internal, perhaps contemplative space with meaning.

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inside

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outside

transition of both

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“I have always believed that interest is not to be found in the first image or the first effect you create, that this is actually not the most interesting way for a building of any kind to communicate.

It is more often what we call the ‘after image’, or the double readings you create; a certain layered effect or fascination that needs to be present in the design which functions as an attractor. You can create a form of crossing point, whereby the pavilion becomes an ideogram, where the visual elements of the pavilion are combined with the theoretical aspects of the design.

BEN

VAN

BERKEL

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Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning University of Sydney

credits

BDES2012 Architectural Communications 2 Semester 01.2011 Unit Coordinator: Dr Dagmar Reinhardt Studio Tutors: Dagmar Reinhardt, Eduardo Barata, Carolina Torres, Melissa Pearson, Timmy Lum. Lab Tutors: Steven Janssen, Jonathon Donnelly, Jonathan Newton, Dinah Zhang.

Pavilion: A Project and Methodology Throughout history, architecture has been developed by progressive concepts – at times pursued as concepts of architecture leading to unique private residences, at times as abstract ideas displayed to a public realm through the Pavilion, in the context both gallery venues and world exhibition settings. The Pavilion traditionally refers to freestanding structures built as objects of pleasure, small (garden) outbuildings, particularly popular in the 18th century. These light temporary or semi permanent structure often resembled small classical temples and follies.

Sometimes specifically erected for special occasions such as fetes, garden banquets, and balls, these structures show unique appearances. The architectural form of the pavilion is itself dynamic, and characterized by speculation, fantasy and mobility. The Pavilion is regarded as a public building type in which relationships between art and architecture, perception and exposition, critique and spectacle, concept and experiment can be deployed.

BDES2012 Architectural Communications 2 reviews the pavilion both as subject and as communication of architecture, BDES2012 Architectural Communications 2 uses the Pavilion as an opportunity for the open expression of architecture at a scale that is at once playful and provocative, speculative and rhetorical. It pursued a path of conceptual development and process through the analysis, documentation and continued transformation of selected architectural pavilions and iconic houses in relation to the courses design and media technique curriculum. We will analyse a series of pavilions and re-interpret these through the techniques and media you are being taught in, ranging from a variety of analogue techniques towards digital design.

Image sources: p7: Bomsite, The artist’s voice since 1981: http://bombsite.com/issues/80/ articles/2483 p11: Charles Jencks, Evolutionary Tree of Architecture, 2000. p12: http://www.mnartists.org/ artistHome

BDES2012 Architectural Communications 2 investigated different explorations of pavilions and experimental houses and derived a series of transformations by subjecting these original pavilions to abstract core themes of architectural concern, such as desire, phenomenal experience (tactility, hapticity, acoustics), memory, porosity, transparency, flux, contamination, /decompositions, nodes, bifurcations, striation, box.to.blob, lofting, modules, counterparts/balance, swarm systems, hybrids, network organizations, and narrative lines. These concepts have been adapted by you to produce an architectural experiment of your own, both in an analogue and in a digital realm.

The exhibition launched on May 24th, and continued until May 31st 2011, opens passages of the project to the public: speculations, fantasies and modifications communicated and presented in the public realm of the Hearth, Ground Level Wilkinson Building, Faculty of Architecture, University of Sydney.

Copyright with project author and Faculty of Architecture Produced March-May 2011, Sydney, Australia

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“On the whole I believe that pavilion can be seen not just as models for experimenting with materials or construction techniques, but also as models for thinking; as intellectual constructs. Through the experience of working with the diagram or even design models, as apart from working in a linear process of moving from sketch to design, the pavilion can be seen as a kind of extension of an instrument for design; the pavilion can function as a possible apartments for the process of design. “ BEN VAN BERKEL