SENSORY EXPERIENCE : pavilions in the urban void Lindsey Davis Masters of Architecture Spring 2010 Thesis Advisors: William Tilson and Donna Cohen
The following is a Master’s Research Project presented to the University of Florida School of Architecture in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Architecture. University of Florida, 2010 Lindsey Davis First Chair: Professor William Tilson Second Chair: Professor Donna Cohen Critics: Professor Martin Gunderson Professor Albertus Wang Professor John Maze
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i would like to express my gratitude to the following people, without whom, i would not have made it to graduation To my all my professors in undergraduate and graduate studies... To my Thesis Committee... Professor Tilson, Thank you for your indispensable guidance, motivation and dedication through the entire process Professor Cohen, Thank you for your new perspective throughout this semester to my critics... To Mom and Dad... Thank you for your unconditional love and support - my foundation to my classmates... for your many critiques
SENSORY EXPERIENCE: pavilions in the urban void [exploring the senses and memory through a pavilion] [process of discovering architecture without the sense of sight or hearing] [exploring temporary structures + permanent structures] [creating a place of meditation within the urban void] [instrument for viewing the landscape]
“I see the task of architecture as the defense of the authenticity of human experience.” -Juhani Pallasmaa
“One can say that the city itself is the collective memory of its people, and like memory, it is associated with objects and places. The city is the locus of the collective memory. This relationship between locus and citizenry then becomes the city’s predominant image, both architecture and of landscape, and as certain artifacts become part of its memory, new ones emerge...” -aldo rossi
Contents 13
Abstract: Sensory Experience: pavilions in the urban void
16-21 22-27 28-31 34-53 56-61
62-63 64-67 68-73 74-79 80-83 84-85 86-87 88-99 100-103
Senses and memory the 12 senses multi-sensory case studies history of the pavilion History [location + site]: miami, gainesville, orlando pavilion’s program: Rest/Meditation + Play + View + Work Temporary + Permanent material studies Field Ground Conditions site analysis experiential zones preliminary design studies diagrammatic pavilion and site studies final design Conclusion
“Every touching experience of architecture is multi-sensory, qualities of space, matter and scale are measured equally by the eye, ear, nose, skin tongue, skeleton and muscle.� -juhani pallasmaa eyes of the skin
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SENSORY EXPERIENCE: pavilions in the urban void A catalyst is created within the urban fabric through the instrument of the pavilion for experiencing the landscape. Placed within three cities, the pavilion creates a transcendental place that forms according to the location, natural conditions, water and the people occupying the space. The project discovers the inaccessible path and activates the landscape. The nature of the site becomes one with the architecture and influences the skin, materiality and acoustical qualities. The dialogue between the edge and shoreline conditions is transformed by the pavilion. A series of sensory experiences change and evolve through the path and time, with constant variations in the ground plane and materiality. Skin, form, color and transparency are the initial architectural experiences of the pavilion. The secondary senses: hearing, touch, and taste are stimulated through a path of varying sensory moments and experiences. The architecture has been shaped by exploring these senses as well as other issues that reflect the senses such as movement, balance, pressure, warmth, texture and rhythm. The multi-sensory pavilion creates experiences, emotions, and memories within the urban void of the city. By considering architecture through someone without the sense of sight or hearing leads to the form and skin of the pavilion. Blurring the line between inside and outside, an innovative public space is created that serves as a place of sanctuary and serenity. The extension of the structure becomes a cultural bridge and has a memorable affect on its visitors. The functions view, play, meditation or resting place, and work become moments within the space. Traces, indentations and remnants of the pavilion will leave its presence and memory within the occupant and the city.
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Objectives: _a pavilion located within three urban voids _exploring temporal architecture and permanent architecture _experimenting with materials for the skin of the pavilion _viewing architecture through memory and time _creating a sensory experience and a transcendental place
kamila szczesna thoughts/memory/graphite drawing no2
thoughts/memory no3
thoughts/memory no6
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memory of space memories of spaces we have visited often fade, but at times specific spaces become imprinted in our minds. the spaces we inhabited before which left a trace become more securely rooted as they are visited again. we move continually from place to place and we may never inhabit the original space again, yet it exists transformed, with traces left in our minds forever. The experience and memories by a person are personal and indescribable, with every person holding a different perspective of the atmosphere and time.
“A moving piece of architecture relates to the people, air, noises, sound, colors, materials, textures and forms.� -Peter Zumthor, Atmospheres
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the senses and history of memory Since Renaissance times, the five senses were understood to form a hierarchical system from the highest sense of vision to the lowest sense of touch. The system of the senses was related to the image of the cosmic body: vision was correlated to fire and light, hearing to air, smell to vapor, taste to water and touch to earth. Rudolph Steiner, architect and philosopher, identified 12 senses: the primary senses known as touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing, then he acknowledged seven other senses that affect us daily and affect the design of architecture: life, movement, balance, temperature and warmth, 1 language, concept and ego. From the book, The Art of Memory, by Francis Yates: the classical art of memory was invented in Greece and then passed on to Rome. It was a mnemonic technique which worked through memorizing a series of places on which images were memorized. There were certain rules about what kind of 2 memory places to choose and what kind of memory images. The philosopher and inventor of the art of memory was Simonides, who saw poetry, painting and mnemonics, or the process and technique of improving or developing memory, in terms of intense visualization. The mnemonics method Simonides introduced involved encoding information into memory by evoking vivid mental images and then mentally placing them in familiar locations, such as in the rooms of a house or space. Simonides discovered this process when he was attending a banquet where the roof collapsed. He survived and was required to determine who was at the banquet and where they were sitting my using his visual and spatial memory. Discovering this ordered memory process, he developed his gift for memory into the system known as mnemonics. The strong connection in the history of memory and the history of method is discussed by Francis Yates, in the many memory treatises. One for example, memory loci, which should be performed in quiet places, such as a chapel, meditation or spiritual place.3 The process of this Master’s Research project began with the study of these [12] senses and their relationship with the different kinds of memory, whether it is memory from childhood or past experiences. This diagram begins the architectural process in creating a sensory experience filling the urban void.
analytical diagram_senses + memory SENSORY EXPERIENCE : pavilions in the urban void
Perceptual Memory (right side of brain) : conceptual Perceptual Memory (right side semantic (meaningbrain) in language) : Conceptual episodic Semantic (meaning in language) polysensory Episodic phyletic sensory Polysensory Phyletic sensory 5 (vision, audition, (Vision, touch, taste, smell) Audition, Touch, Taste, Smell)
Rudolph Steiner, architect and philosopher, identified 12 senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing, life, self movement, balance, temperature + warmth, language, concept and ego.
The Art of Memory, Francis Yates : The philosopher Simonides saw poetry, painting and mnemonics or the process and technique of improving or developing memory, in terms of intense visualization. The mnemonics method Simonides introduced involved encoding information into memory by evoking vivid mental images and then mentally placing them in familiar locations, such as in the rooms of a house or space. Discovering this ordered memory process, he developed his gift for memory into the system known as mnemonics.
Auditory Memory : sound that may remind you of Auditory Memory : is the sound a specific experience, that may remind you of a specific that experience, may bethatalarming may alarming or or delightful 4 pleasant.
concept concept
Sight Sight
Visual Memory : is remembering Visual Memory : is specific paths or routes to lead you to remembering specific certain destinations paths or routes to lead you to certain destinations.6
Sound Sound
Touch Touch
Smell Smell
Tactile Memory : is the feeling Tactile Memory : is the or texture of a surface that recalls feeling or texture of past experiences a surface that recalls past experiences.7 Olfactory Memory : is the smell that may remind you of a specific person, place 8 orOlfactory thing.Memory : is the smell that may remind you of a person, specific place or thing
Taste Taste
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of
Emotional Memory : the different feelings Emotional Memory : is the different that feelings occur in inaa person person at that occur at different times in the day different times of the day.11
ego ego
Movement Movement
Kinesthetic Memory : is an action that results in the sudden memory something Kinesthetic of Memory : is an action 9 in the sudden memory of that results else. something else
Balance Balance
Temperature Temperature
Language Language
Life Life
Executive Memory (left side brain) : conceptual plans Executive Memory (left side of brain) : programs Conceptual acts Plans Programs phyletic Actsmotor 10 Phyletic motor (action, behavior, language) (Action, Behavior, Language)
of
Multisensory pavilions case studies The Blur Building, Diller and Scofidio, 2002
1
A case study which explores multi-sensory architecture is the Blur Building which is pavilion architecture of atmosphere. The form is a fog mass made from natural and man-made forces. Entry to the pavilion begins by walking down a long ramp where visitors arrive on a large open air platform at the center of the fog mass where the only sound to be heard is the white noise of the water nozzles. Visual and acoustical references are erased along the journey toward the fog leaving only an optical white out. Within the pavilion is a glass box surrounded by fog that creates a sense of physical suspension. The focus of the architects is as much about the nature of space and the experience as it is about creating spaces. A quote by Diller and Scofidio, “In this exposition pavilion there is nothing to see but our dependence on vision itself. It is an experience on de-emphasis on an environmental scale.�12 The senses in the pavilion are fully engaged, often by limiting vision and focusing on touch, sound and smell.
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Swiss Pavilion, Peter Zumthor, 2000 This
pavilion
focuses
on
multi-sensory
and
metaphysics of architecture. Metaphysics is
2
made of physical materials, but it also produces experiences that go beyond the tangible world or beyond the physical nature. Many parts of the human existence can be considered to be metaphysical such as thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams, or ideas. The pavilion is a container of memory, thoughts and dreams through its materiality, structure and form. The structure consisted of timber that was cut and had not been dried. During the expo the timber was drying and the sounds of creaking were heard as it dried. The wood material is permeable yet is solid and directive. The building was almost entirely open to the elements allowing rain and natural light to enhance the sensory quality of the place. The materiality, texture and natural winds lead you through the spaces. There are five main elements that interact with one another to create a complete metaphysical experience: nature, materials, light, the 13
human body, and memory.
Transient Pavilions Case Studies IBM Travelling Pavilion, Renzo Piano, 1985 Renzo
3
4
Piano’s IBM Travelling Pavilion uses nature as the most important element. He thought of a travelling exhibition on informatics, or computer science, as one that can be easily set up everywhere in existing parks using a pavilion that could readily be disassembled and transported from town to town. One of the IBM Pavilion’s precedents was the contemporary and demountable exhibition pavilion, Crystal Palace. Many of the components in Renzo Piano’s IBM Travelling Pavilion were of sculptured biomorphic forms and some of these carved in wood. This suggested a particularly intimate relationship between the pavilion and the foliage it nestled in, which also provided sun shading to the exhibition. Arranging for the computers to be seen against a natural landscape was a basic intention of the exhibition, which was to present 14 computers to young people.
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Travelling 2005
5
6
Nomadic
Museum,
Shigeru
Ban,
Shigeru Ban’s Travelling Nomadic Museum is a temporary museum that travelled around the world to different cities including Los Angeles, Beijing and Paris. It started in Manhattan in 2005 on Pier 54. The museum is composed of recyclable and reusable materials and houses the Ashes and Snow exhibit by photographer Gregory Colbert. Shigeru Ban used shipping containers for the walls and paper tubing for the roof and columns, demonstrating sustainable practices and an innovative architectural approach. The museum provides a transitory environment that evokes the journey of the exhibition. The perimeter of the Nomadic Museum was composed of 148 steel cargo containers, which are stacked and secured in a checkerboard pattern to create rigid walls. Ban’s techniques always aim to minimize the amount of material used in construction, whether it is a temporary or permanent structure.15
an exposition of temporary pavilions memory erased
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion series is the world’s first architectural program of its kind. Designed by some of the world’s foremost architects, the annual installation houses a program of events and remains on site for only three months. There is six months from the architects invitation to completion of the pavilion. The Serpentine Gallery is located in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London. The pavilion is for outdoor events, gatherings and picnics. There has been 16 nine pavilions, starting in 2000. The pavilions make use of acoustical, tactile and visual qualities. all of the designs of the pavilions have changed, yet the Serpentine pavilions share five common qualities:
[1]
natural ventilation
[2]
response to nature
[3]
natural light
[4] easily materials [5]
deconstructed
+
construction methods + time
reusable
2009 Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA
27
2002 Toyo Ito
2001 Daniel Libeskind
2007 Zaha Hadid
the history of pavilions japanese and chinese cultures
7
8
9
10
Japanese Pavilions are centered around japanese landscaping and gardens. Stone, Water and plants combine to produce a pure, simple
Traditional
environment in which every element in the garden is imbued with symbolism. The Pavilions are designed to celebrate the beauty of nature, which the japanese have profound respect. The cultural pavilion typically holds art work of the history and culture of the japanese. The pavilion also holds a tea ritual, which is the focal 17 point of the pavilion.
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11
12
13
14
Traditional Chinese Pavilions are covered structures without surrounding walls and are a traditional part of Chinese architecture. While often found within 18 temples, pavilions are not exclusively religious structures. Many Chinese parks and gardens feature pavilions to provide shade and a place to rest.
the disappearance of the Barcelona Pavilion mies van der rohe, 1928-29 the barcelona pavilion was built for the german authorities who would receive the King and was disassembled immediately after the close of the exhibition. Many of the original pieces of the pavilion were lost during world war II. In 1983, 50 years past the original date of construction, the decision was made to reconstruct the pavilion on its original site.19 the pavilion was the same as in 1928, without a specific program or function and the pavilion was ultimately the object to be viewed. The barcelona Pavilion became an image/picture relationship. Image is a physical likeness or representation of a person, animal, or thing, photographed, painted, sculptured, or otherwise made visible. picture is a visual representation of a person, object or scene, as a painting, drawing, or photograph. Few pictures of the original pavilion were taken and many people did not have the opportunity to experience it. The image and memory of the pavilion was limited to the small group of people who attended the exposition. The memory of the pavilion was not what the picture represents, the plan looks extensive and the section looks compressed, the pavilion gives the impression of neither.20 the true appreciation for the pavilion came many years later when it was reconstructed.
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barcelona pavilion_mies van der rohe
[the few photographs taken of the original barcelona pavilion]
15
16
[previous pavilion design studies]
Urban Acupuncture: St. Augustine Pavilion In earlier research and design projects, I looked at the idea of urban acupuncture. The process began by analyzing and documenting three precise locations on a historic and arterial street in St. Augustine, Cordova Street. The street lacked moments of pause, rejuvenation and circulation. The pavilion evokes remembrance of the history, culture and the Rosario Line, which is the historic wall of the city, that no longer exists. The Rosario Line Wall once existed on the present Cordova Street. The Inscribed moments within the pavilion’s walls reveal the history of the Rosario Line. The pavilions create urban acupuncture which connects people, creates nodes and improved circulation. The pavilion occupies a small footprint, yet proposes a new profound ideology for the city.
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renders of st. augustine pavilion
water
sections_st augustine pavilion
site locations for the pavilion
Gainesville
Orlando
Miami
Locations for pavilion
35
Location [florida]
Landscape [focus]
sensory [transcendental]
what do these sites have in common or how are they different? [Gainesville] downtown
:
university
+
Transient
Population
+
cultural
Gainesville’s site is located adjacent to the hippodrome state theatre, in the heart of downtown Gainesville. The site was chosen because of the strong cultural arts area and also the lack of pause or rest within the city. The pavilion creates a transcendental place, for occupants to rest or meditate.
[Orlando] : Tourism + Location + Cultural corridor The Cultural Corridor is established by the City of Orlando to enhance the cultural arts and particularly the work of Florida artists. Orange and Magnolia Avenue are the main spines of the corridor, linking Loch Haven Park to a future location of the performing arts and education center. The pavilion is located near the cultural corridor, on Orlando’s Lake Eola, in the center of downtown. The pavilion responds to the street edge, pedestrians and the lake.
[Miami] : Culture + Diverse Community + International Arts Center + museum park Museum Park was chosen for the revitalization of an urban void. The park contains un-activated landscape and has long periods without use. The pavilion acknowledges and respects the lack of green space in miami, and works to create a place where people can view the landscape, water, and city. This site was the main area of focus for the pavilion, yet the pavilion can be placed in any location.
site history and culture
17
1940 downtown gainesville
18
1953 university of florida
22
21
1911 orlando’s lake eola
25
1896 historical meeting place to incorporate miami as a city
2006 Orlando creative village
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1913 opening of collins bridge in miami
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19
2010 present downtown gainesville_hippo-
student life
23
2009 performing arts center
24
2010 new orlando arena
27
1996 Miami museum of contemporary art
20
28
2010 arsht performing arts museum
environmental and functional variables for design of the pavilion
environmental factors
spaces
seasons
subjects
sunlight
outside play
spring
art
precipitation
inside play
summer
music
fall
movement
wind temperature
eating bathrooms
humidity
public
location
quiet
orientation acoustics
performance
winter
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materials
water
adaptive
pavilion
floating
demand
permanent
paper
hovering
climate
temporary temporal
water
submerged
people
transient
copper
elevated
permeable
isolated
vegetation
porous perforated polycarbonate
programmatic elements of the pavilion Nature
“the material world, surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities.”
play + imagination + creative mentality
“to exercise or employ oneself in diversion, amusement, or recreation.”
rest + meditation “to engage in thought or contemplation; reflect”
visual arts, music and movement “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.”
visual arts, music + movement
nature
play + play + imagination imagination + + creative mentality creative thinking
rest + meditation
41
The pavilion is an instrument for viewing the landscape and nature, it is also a place to play, rest or meditate, have informal work meetings, or gatherings with people. While trying to establish the programmatic elements, I began by referring back to Rudolph Steiner, who acknowledged the 12 senses and also established the waldorff schools. he categorized his theory of learning into categories. They acknowledge times for play, imagination and creative thinking and times for music, movement and performance. He then acknowledged rest and meditation as important elements and with nature as a reoccurring theme. These categories were beneficial in determining the use of the pavilion.
“Architecture is a spatial art, but it is also a temporal art.� -peter zumthor
miami shoreline conditions shoreline conditions 1928 1928
Miami river miami river 1930 1930
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Bicentennial park site 1959 1959
30
31
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miami bicentennial park_history of site now cultural park Bicentennial Park is a 30-acre public, urban park in Downtown Miami, Florida. The park opened in 1976 on the site of an old yacht basin. It was named “Bicentennial Park� to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States in that same year. The park is bordered on the north by I-395, Metromover, and the Miami Herald headquarters, on the south by the American Airlines Arena and Bayside Marketplace, on the west by Biscayne Boulevard and on the east by Biscayne Bay. Bicentennial Park hosts many large scale events, and can hold around 45,000 people. Some of these events include Ultra Music Festival, a large, two-day music event, and many other concerts.21 The Park often fills with the homeless when events are not taking place. Therefore, the city is currently undergoing a renovation to be renamed Museum or Cultural Park. the construction of the new Miami Art Museum, by Herzog and De Meuron, will soon begin and will be completed in 2013. The location of the museum is in the northern third of the cultural park.
Herzog and De Meuron’s Miami Art Museum
International Arts Destination
Located within the new Cultural Park, also known as Bicentennial Park, Herzog and De Meuron have designed the Miami Art Museum, which will open in 2013. Sensitive to the city’s need for green space the new Miami Art Museum building is designed to extend the park into the museum site by means of a shaded outdoor terrace accessible to all visitors, not just those who continue into the museum itself. The museum is an open air structure of precisely arranged columns supporting a broad, shading roof. Wide stairs connect the platform to the sea. The pavilion interacts with this large park and the museum creating a new revitalized edge condition 22 on the south end of the park. The museum shades the immediate area surrounding its perimeter, and the pavilion allows people, whether attending the museum or not to experience the landscape further, including a more connected relationship with the water.
45
“Herzog & de Meuron’s design concept for the new Miami Art Museum has extraordinary potential that will only be fully explored over time as the architects continue to work at its development. Its integration with the park, its sustainable energy program and green features, its soaring canopy and the welcoming environment it creates, will certainly be elements that make the new MAM a true symbol of Miami in the 21st century.” -Terence Riley
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Consideration of site
33
47
the process of analyzing key moments within the city of miami, has led to the decision of the cultural park as a site for the pavilion. the intent is to choose a site which brings up many architectural points of views and where architecture may bring a solution to the issues. Acknowledging the city’s need for green space and the need for use of this sometimes unoccupied park, brings the idea of the pavilion on the water’s edge. multiple schemes were produced to determine the pavilion’s interaction with the new miami art museum, the water and the pedestrian access. The analysis begins with scale and location.
pavilion 34
sensory pavilion location waters edge
miami art museum
1216’ museum park entrance
metromover
highway 1
arsht performing arts
commercial
ne 2nd avenue
metromover
ten museum park : housing + commercial
Miami_Museum Park west-east elevation
1o58’
o’ biscayne bay
I-395
pavilion location
miami art museum : herzog and de meuron
49
585’
4o’ 22’
0’
miami art museum
I-395
the miami herald building
metromover
Miami_Museum Park north-south elevation
1286’
american airlines arena
biscayne bay
pavilion location
51
70’ 60’ 50’
pavilion proposed locations
[gainesville] [gainesville]
[gainesville]
[orlando]
[orlando] [orlando]
[miami]
[miami]
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[gainesville]
[orlando]
[miami] [miami]
analytical site diagram_miami florida
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“Place is space which has historical meanings, where some things have happened which are now remembered and which provide continuity and identity across generations. Place is space in which important words have been spoken which have established identity, defined vocation and envisioned destiny. Place is space in which vows have been exchanged, promises have been made and demands have been issued. Place is indeed a protest against on unpromising pursuit of space. It is a 23 declaration that our humanness cannot be found in escape, detachment, absence of commitment, and undefined freedom.�
How can I create a pavilion of sound and touch? The sound measures space and makes its scale comprehensible. Sound gives the sense of the materials used and their qualities. Interiors are like large instruments, collecting sound, amplifying it, distributing it elsewhere. This has to do with the shape of each room and with the surfaces of the materials they contain, and the way those materials have been applied. Sound and memory of a place are intrinsically related. “architecture of our time is turning into the retinal art of the eye and architecture at large has 24 become an art of the printed image fixed by the hurried eye of the camera.” Touch, known as the lowest of the five senses, is the unconscious of our vision. The door handle is the handshake of a building and the textures are important to the understanding of the building and how it was made. 25 All experience implies the acts of recollecting, remembering and Reviewing. The embodied memory has a essential role as the basis of remembering a space or place.
Experiencing architecture without vision seems almost impossible. Imagining what kind of experience architecture offers to someone without sight is only possible by speaking to someone who has no vision. Rebecca Maxwell, a writer and former teacher, lost her sight at the age of three and talks about her experiences of architecture. When she is asked how to describe a building, she explains that she begins with discovering a sense of the floor plan. She explains that to familiarize herself with any building she creates her own internal map. She would begin by determining the skeleton of the building by touching the structural elements, then get a sense of the scale of the room and also determine where there are places that let in air and daylight. Within a space with low ceilings, she may feel compression or a disproportion of the space and then have an idea to what the space may look like. She also mentions that she believes there are more than just the five senses, she includes sense of pressure, balance, rhythm, movement, life, warmth and even a sense of self. When asked about the sense of balance she mentions that she has a fear of heights, and it isn’t visual, yet it feels to her like gravity or the earth is pulling 26 her down. She can easily recognize when she is on a balcony many feet above the ground. “Temperature in this sense, is physical, but presumably psychological too. It’s in what I see, what I feel, what I touch, even with my feet.” -Peter Zumthor
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prayer_studio tamassociati
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a place to rest_think_meditate what is a sacred place? An architecture that is “at once the expression[s] and the source[s] of the transcendent; an architecture that “arise[s] as human creations, but persist[s] as transforming, life-altering environments.”30
body of architecture is the material presence of architecture, ultimately its frame. Materials have endless qualities that can be manipulated and used to create a multi-sensory The
architecture. Shown in the previous case studies, building materials can have a large impact on the feeling and emotions evoked when encountering a building. Wood materials in architecture create a sense of warmth and feeling of comfort and other materials such as concrete and stone 31 can create a feeling of melancholy and somberness. The goal is to create a pavilion with an atmosphere that has a transcendent quality, which surpasses the ordinary range of perception. The pavilion will test different membranes and skins that may have a interactive and adaptive quality. The temperature is another important aspect within the pavilion. Temperature in this sense is physical, but psychological too. Every building has a certain temperature according to its feeling and actual temperature pertaining to the materiality. It is well known that materials more or less extract the warmth from our bodies. In addition, researching measure and proportion precedents, such as Vitruvius, in which he used the body as the dimensioning and proportioning system of his constructions. Therefore, an architectural experience is not simply a series of retinal images, a building is encountered it is approached, confronted, encountered related to 32
one’s body and movement.
“Projects are born out of an idea, and in my case this idea is always accompanied by a material. I can't imagine a method of design in which the architect first decides on the form, and then on the materials". -Adolf Loos on Peter Zumthor’s Swiss Pavilion "It was the permeability of the screens. Not just in terms of light, but how they allowed the smells, sounds and views to permeate through. I was in contact with so many things at the same time that 29 it made me wonder."
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thoughts/memory pierced thoughts/memory pierced drawing no1_kamila Szcdrawing no1_Kamila zesna
Szczesna
drawing thoughts_kamila Szczesna drawing thoughts 2008_Kamidrawing thoughts 2008
la Szczesna
thoughts/memory boxbox no 1nodetail thoughts/memorylight light 1 detail
Skin and materiality of the pavilion The function of ornament or more specifically detailing of a skin should be designed on the basis of acknowledging the senses and not merely for aesthetic value. How does the skin and materiality of a building affect how we feel about a building? Are the emotions that occur outside the building the same as the emotions that occur when inside the building? The private senses which vary according to the person are classified as smell, taste and touch. The strongest memory is evoked by smell, when creating a meditation or recollection place this may be one of the most important elements. Smell is also the mute sense, we cannot remember the names of the smell, but we tend to describe how they make us feel. Childhood memories are often brought back with the sense of smell. Often construction materials, such as wood which is unfinished, can have a sense of smell. Touch is known as the lowest sense, yet has the ability to become the most important and memorable sense. “Our skin is what stands between us and the 27 world.” Our skin makes contact with something not the mind. Perhaps we should think of touch as the unconscious of our vision. Maurice Merleau-Ponty states, “The visible is what is seized upon with the eyes, the sensible is what is seized on by the senses” 28
“In memorable experiences of architecture, space matter and time fuse into one single dimension, into the basic substance of being, that penetrates the consciousness. We identify ourselves with this space, this place, this moment and these dimensions as they become ingredientsof very existence. Architecture is the art of meditation and reconciliation.” -juhani pallasmaa
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vegetation
screening: shade texture sound smell
water
stone/gravel
vegetation as screen
folding/collapsing screen
transparent/ nontransparent screen
65
preliminary skin study of pavilion
polycarbonate
35
screening
36
fabric
37
vegetation
38
67
gravel
39
fritted glass
40
mist
41
water
42
material studies_skin of pavilion
field/ground condition studies
69
Preliminary design studies of the sensory pavilion Studying Light, Material and ground conditions, three diagrams represent the possibilities of the pavilion. The color represents the transparency of the skin and the moments where people can move through. The beginning design experiments with creating shifts in the ground plane, and the roof becoming part of the ground/ramp, where people can walk on. The studies also show the possibility of the pavilion extending over the water. The color on the drawing experiments with different skin materials, such as natural vegetation or water/mist as skin. Water collection becomes an event within the pavilion and can be completed by the sloping roof of the pavilion. “The design is as much about the nature of space as it is about creating spaces.� -Diller and Scofidio on the blur building
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field/ground condition studies
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the section diagrams show the relationship of downtown Miami to the pavilion. Again, there are three series of field and ground studies of the pavilion. The diagrams play with the idea of color and skin. This process of diagramming became the generator for the way people move through the pavilion.
pray_meditate
water_solitude
water_solitude
[1]
path path path p h path path path p a path path path
path path path path path p path path path
analytical diagrams of miami site
[2]
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[3]
water_solitude
path path path path path path path path
light_memory box
In this diagram I am focusing on the edge condition of the site and the history of Miami’s shorelines. The history of the site as a old yacht basin, is one of the forces in the linear direction and form of the pavilion. The site was previously broken into numerous horizontal strips that were eventually filled in with land. The pavilion’s place is investigated by being located on the edge, in the middle, and completely on the waters edge. The diagrams explore access from the pedestrian walkways and the main highway cradling the site. The pavilion explores this man-made edge and reinvents the way the occupant interacts with the landscape, water, and city.
pray_meditate
gram
light_memory box
pray_meditate
path path path path path path path path
water_solitude
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diagram of pavilion The studies of the diagrams resulted in choosing to occupy the south edge of the cultural park. The diagram studies the relationship between the urban city, pedestrian paths, water and the new Miami Art Museum. The pavilion fills an area of the urban void and encourages a dialogue between the museum and landscape. Moments of pause within the pavilion, allow for the occupants interaction with the building and the skin. The occupants of the pavilion leave their trace and imprint within the place they visited.
analytical diagram_gainesville site
pray_meditate
path path path
path path path path light_memory box
path
water_solitude
the gainesville site occupies the street edge and is located directly next to the Hippodrome State Theatre in downtown gainesville. The pavilion provides rest in the fast paced urban environment and relief from the stresses of work and school. the pavilion provides a link between the university of florida and downtown gainesville. Gainesville is proposing a new means of transporation, called the RTS, rapid transit system to link the university students and faculty to downtown gainesville as well as other areas within the city.
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pray_meditate
water_solitude
analytical diagram_orlando site
light_memory box
path path path path path path path path
the orlando site occupies another edge condition with the street as its primary generator. the pavilion has a relationship with Lake Eola, which is one of the largest and most central lakes in downtown orlando. the pavilion is designed to adjust and adapt to its location. the size and scale may vary according to the location, the overall form and functions of the pavilion remain constant.
SIGHT, TOUCH
TOUCH, SOUND
SIGHT, SOUND, SMELL
SOUND, TOUCH, SMELL
N
Scale 1/32” = 1’
series of experiential zones
81
plan diagram field and programmatic spaces
a place to play
a place to see
83
a place to meditate
water collection a place to rest
preliminary renders miami site The preliminary renders are gestural drawings to understand the scale of the large park with the relationship to the towers in downtown miami. The study renders also discover what the project entails, including the length of the pavilion. In these early images, the pavilion is on the edge of becoming a promenade. The overall design and the renders change further in the project.
85
glass tubes
path
structure
grass on roof/ ramp structural system and roof
exterior skin
grass surrounding pavilion
site conditions
87 water collection
ramp
green rest areas on pavilion roof
pavilion
89
west-east elevation
East-West Section east-west section Scale 1/16”=1’
east-west section
91
west-east elevation
site plan
N
Scale 1:100 Site Plan
93
[1] Miami art museum herzog and de meuron [2] Airlines arena 5
[3] arsht performing arts center
3
3
[4] mixed used buildings 1
[5] miami herald
4 4
4 4 2
pavilion
n plan
N
Scale 1/32” = 1’
95
[view looking south_without structural system]
97
east-west elevation
[view looking south_with structural system]
99
[night elevation]
Where is the next place for the pavilion?
101
materials
fern
lavender
rosemary
place
new york
chicago
california
function
play
meditate/exercise
gathering
What’s the next step for the pavilion?
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This Masters Research Project is just the first step in a series of investigations in the ideas of the Sensory Experience, filling the urban void. The pavilion is designed to adapt to any place in the world. The scale, materials and relationships with landscape may vary in different places, yet the overall form and function remain constant. The pavilion provides a place of rest and human interaction with the building. The pavilion has the possibility of filling urban voids throughout the world, and stands out by the multi-sensory approach. This is the end of the book, however the project has many more steps it needs and can take. The sensory experience can continue to be expanded on in further detail. The studies with natural vegetation as skin can go further to increase the sense of smell. The sense of touch can be extended further by allowing the occupant within the building to have a part in changing the architecture, or leaving their trace or memory at the place. The memory of the pavilion is left in the minds of the traveller but then also left in the pavilion.
IMAGES CITED 1 dillerscofidio.com 2 otto-otto.com 3 vestaldesign.com 4 structuremag.org 5 burohappold.com 6 ibid 7 panoguide.com 8 skyscrapercity.com 9 home.howstuffworks.com 10 popgive.com 11 biad-Lighting.com 12 china.org.cn 13 aar.ucr.edu 14 gardenvisit.com 15 Josep Quetglas, Fear of glass: Mies van der rohe’s pavilion in barcelona, Basel; Boston : BirkhäuserPublishers for Architecture, 2001. 16 ibid 17 soils.ifas.ufl.edu 18 ibid 19 flickr.com
20 clearwisdom.net 21 insideflorida.com 22 explorationorlando.com 23 orlandopac.org 24 orlandopinstripedpost.com 25 floridamemory.com 26 ibid 27 blackbookmag.com 28 arshtcenter.org 29 floridamemory.com 30 ibid 31 ibid 32 arcspace.com/architects/herzog_meuron/mam/mam.html 33 clubzone.com 34 arcspace.com/architects/herzog_meuron/mam/mam.html 35 gardenvisit.com 36 directindustry.com 37 global-b2b-network.com 38 anbg.gov.au 39 commons.wikimedia.org
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ENDNOTES 1 Yates, Francis. the Art of Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966. Print. 2 ibid 3 ibid 4 “Memory Expansion Channel.” 1996. Web. <www.brainchannels.com/Memory/history.html>. 5 ibid 6 ibid 7 ibid 8 ibid 9 ibid 10 ibid 11 ibid 12 Diller, Elizabeth, and Ricardo Scofidio. Web. 2010. <www.dillerscofidio.com> 13 “Achieving the Metaphysics of Architecture: The Architecture of Peter Zumthor.” 2010. Web. <www. quirpa.com/docs/achieving_the_metaphysics_of_architecture__peter_zumthor.html> 14 Department of Architecture, University of Hong Kong. “IBM Travelling Pavilion by Renzo Piano.”Web. <http://courses.arch.hku.hk/precedent/1996/ibm/html/concept.htm>. 15 “Shigeru Ban Creates the Nomadic Museum from Shipping Containers to Transform Historic West Side Pier.” October 8 2004.Web. <http://www.allbusiness.com/finance-insurance-real-estate/realestate/4409175-1.html>. 16 “Serpentine Gallery Pavilion” <serpentinegallery.org> 17 “Golden Pavilion.” 2010. Web. <www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/golden_pavilion.html
18 “Chinese Pavilions” <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_pavilion>
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19 Evans, Robin. Translations from Drawing to Building. London: Architectural Association Publishers, 1997. Print. 20 “The Barcelona Pavilion.” 2008.Web. <www.designboom.com/portrait/mies/barcelona.html>. 21 “Bicentennial Park Miami, Florida” <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicentennial_Park_%28Miami%29> 22 “Miami Art Museum” <http://www.arcspace.com/architects/herzog_meuron/mam/mam.html> 23 Brueggeman, Walter, The Land: Place as Gift, Promise and Challenge in Biblical Faith. philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1977. 5. 24 Holl, Steven, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Perez-Gomez. Questions of Perception Phenomenology of Architecture. San Francisco: William Stout, 2007. Print. 25 Ackerman, Diane. A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Random House, 1990. Print. 26 Saunders, Alan. “Beyond Appearances, Architecture and the Senses.” November 2004. Web. <www. ebility.com/articles/beyondappearances.php> 27 Ibid 28 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. New York: London, Routledge & K. Paul, 1962. Print. 29 Peter Zumthor’s Swiss Pavilion. 2010. Web. <http://www.quirpa.com/docs/achieving_the_metaphysics_of_ architecture__peter_zumthor.html> 30 Jones, Lindsay. The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture. Cambridge: harvard University press, 2000, 22. 31 Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture. United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2009. Print. 32 Yates, Francis. Renaissance and Reform. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983. Print.