Architectural Newspaper

Friday March 31 2017

PLACE FOR PUBLIC Place for Public - A collection of essays from students highlighting the variables in a set of public realms through conscientious internal debate. Can architecture serve as a vessel for abstract symbolism? Can an architect accurately delegate phenomenon? Can a building surpass it’s movement? Can architecture truly reflect nature? Does non-conformity lead to revelation? Questions are rarely left answered, but the thought that occurs between the lines are what we seek.

Is the Hilversum Town Hall halfway modernism?

Hilversum Town Hall- Willem Dudok

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Willem Marinus Dudok (6 July 1884 – 6 April 1974) was a Dutch modernist architect, ex-army engineer and city architect of Hilversum, located in the north part of the Netherlands1. Hilversum Town Hall (Raadhuis Hilversum) (See Fig.1.) was one of his masterpieces with reminiscent elements of early Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) designs, specifically the Larking building (1903) in New York and Unity Temple (1904) in Illinois.

Built on the outskirts of the city, Raadhuis is surrounded by... see more on the next page.

Artistic Intent

Chichu Art Museum - Tadao Ando

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The Bauhaus Enterprise Universal or Perfected Culture?

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The Dessau Bauhaus with its vision on perfection - Walter Gropius. The Staatliches Bauhaus was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933. With all its success a new culture was dictated and created through the Bauhaus era. To argue the success of the Bauhaus and its created culture we must substantiate through three main strands of text firstly analysing the core history of the Bauhaus, understanding its context and influences. Then interpret the views theorists had on the Bauhaus platform and finally critic the physical presence of the Bauhaus in Dessau... more with Charlie Kistnen The art museum has always been an unnerving subject for artists and architects alike. Frank Ghery’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is considered by many to be one of the most controversial, and in turn one of the best examples of the possible battle between art and architecture, and is in turn one of the best examples of how delicate art can be. The term “The Bilbao Effect” is one coined after the Guggenheim completely transformed the city of Bilbao. In the first three years of it’s conception the museum spurred on an estimated €500 million in tourism from almost 4 million architectural tourists on a pilgrimage to this “spectacle”.

The common criticism of such an eccentric (and popular) design...

Libeskind’s Jewish Museum tells its 12 story

Conor Paul

Where the nature is happening Brockholes visitor center - Adam Khan Architects

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Adam Khan architects made their dream of floating world a reality. Brockholes Visitor center is build on floating pontoon in the middle of the natural reservation, in the middle of the lake, where you can see all kinds of birds in their natural enviroment. It is amazing, how with look like an old village, it was possible to connect with the enviroment. Ludmila Jankovichova tells you more about it...

Libeskind’s Jewish Museum: The faith of the Jews. Daniel Libeskind finnished his first building in the heart of Germany - Berlin in 2001. The building took thirteen years to build but the time was worth the prize. The Jewish Museum became the most viewed attraction of Berlin because of its deep symbolic side which is connected to the faith of Jews as well as with history of whole Germany. Especially the symbolic part of the building is discussed in essay

by Katerina Mensikova.

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Is the Raadhuis Hilversum half-way m Hilversum Town Hall- Willem Dudok

Willem Marinus Dudok (6 July 1884 – 6 April 1974) was a Dutch modernist architect, ex-army engineer and city architect of Hilversum, located in the north part of the Netherlands1. Hilversum Town Hall (Raadhuis Hilversum) (See Fig.1.) was one of his masterpieces with reminiscent elements of early Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) designs, specifically the Larking building (1903) in New York and Unity Temple (1904) in Illinois.

Built on the outskirts of the city, Raadhuis is surrounded by dark brick homes and a dense park environment. The use of light brick colours gives the effect of the building ascending out of the south-facing pool, with several horizontal plains break up the south facing facade emphasising the superiority of the large vertical tower above the entrance e.g. the three symmetrical windows naturally lighting the council chamber situated on the first floor2. Dudok used a three-dimensional arrangement around a square inner courtyard to provide a unique and modern structure, whereas other elements of the

building, such as the council chamber and the large vertical tower incorporate historical Town Hall features creating a contrast between features of the building. He also used light through various windows to add another dimension of equilibrium to his work; banes of glass are divided into small panes which run along the flat roofline and horizontal ground plane. Natural light enters through the windows and are then reflected off the ceiling which is filtered by translucent decorated glass panels which light up the main stairs above.

Blue tiles are used for the detailed finish on the exterior to intensify the distinction between solids and voids, emphasising the sheer volume of the building.

Dudok was well known for his bulky massing of irregular blocks. The majority of his work consisted of high quality brickwork such as traditional English brick construction; often incorporating towers.

Hilversum Town Hall consists of pale yellow brick plains which are dominated by a large vertical tower in a setting of formal pools and gardens1.

Hilversum was known as

a garden city; Raadhuis blended harmonically into this description due to the two enclosed courtyard areas as well as the south-facing pond.

Dudok came to Hilversum in 1915 and then after many attempts in finding the correct land decided that the new Town Hall would be built on the grounds of Witte Hull. In 1917 the chief clerk of Hilversum saw his original design as being too small for a city on the borderline of exponential growth, and therefore started redesigning. (see Fig.2.)

In 1924 he held an exhibition in another one of his buildings, the Rembrandt School, (see Fig.3.) where he showed several perspective drawings, plans and cross-sections of the design. The council members sought a design with a clear, broad ascending entrance for visitors of the city. However, they were dismissive when his design made visitors search for the main entrance behind a wall and involving two 90 turns (see Fig.4). Furthermore, Dudok was informed before designing the Town Hall by a municipal council member De Vries before designing the Town Hall, who commented

Figure 2 Original Town Hall designs

Figure 3 The Rembrandt School, 1917/1920

“no matter which style were to be applied to the building, whether that be byzantine, Romanesque, cubist or futurist, the exterior of the construction should conform to the purpose of the building”. The design was on the contrary: formal offices and rooms such as the mayor’s office and the council chamber were concealed by the south facing closed façade.

Although Dudok went against the council, his design strategy was well-thought through as each design element had its own reasoning behind it. It was not because of the objections towards the design but due to financial reasons, which caused the construction of the design to be delayed to 1927, which was under the watchful eye of the city council. The building was complete and festively opened in 1931.

Dudok’s proposal took into consideration parts of the building with specific functions and purposes. These include the use of different ceiling heights to structure his work in a hierarchical manor; the frowned-upon entrance of the building which involves the visitors having to walk under a low canopy and climb

Friday March 31 2017

modernism?

Figure 4 Access and entrance points on Ground floor- Diagram by Ajay Mahay

several steps before entering the spacious reception hall, creating a dramatic affect whilst entering the building1.

The general movement through the building consists of a circular configuration of paths enclosing a courtyard which is surrounded by offices and representative rooms, making accessibility for the public easy3 (see Fig.5) British architects emulated Dudoks work in the twentieth century with his attractive alternative to generic historical styles, and shifted the views of the terms ‘modern’ and ‘modern movement’. Where many cliché historical schools were designed, and arranged on a new and scientific ‘modern’ basis, that were anything but traditional.

English architects who were known for their ‘bare-boned functionalism’ were consumed in Dudoks special brand of modernism, emphasising on his simplified traditional form on textured surfaces. Elmgrove School (1930-32) designed

by R.S Wilshere (see Fig.7.) incorporated the ‘Dudokian’ style, using flat roofs and large horizontal bands of glazing. The degree of Dudoks

influence on Wilshere would vary building to building, whether his designs contained pivotal towers containing water tanks or the ordinary bond brick work.

The brickwork used within the Netherlands throughout the 20th century is still heavily praised upon thanks to sheer unprecedented workmanship.

One of two renowned buildings include, the Redbrick Exchange building, also known as Beurs van Berlage, was built in 1903 (see Fig. 8.) - located in Amsterdam and designed

by Hendrik Berlage; a pioneer of modern architecture.

Secondly the Hilversum Town Hall built in 1931 consists of pale-yellow English brickwork which has been maintained to look as the day it was originally constructed1. (see Fig. 1.)

Although both buildings are located in contrasting environments (one located in the metropolitan city, the other a mid-size garden city) both buildings display similarities. As compared in Wendingen - H.T Zwiers magazine4 , Berlage’s project was thought to be a ‘victory over a more or less abandoned form scheme’ and Dudok, who

Figuge 5 Configuration of Paths 2nd floor- Diagram by Ajay Mahay

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Figure 7 Elmgrove School (1930-32) -R.S Wilshere

Figure 6 Room Adjacencies- Diagram by Ajay Mahay

was considered as a successor to Berlage, not only in terms of architecture but with urban planning too, broke through with his traditional architecture and created a Town Hall that ‘displayed an extraordinary and far-reaching integrity’.

In the magazine, Zwiers highlighted the continuation of the principles in Dudoks work as once shown by Berlage3.

Even though Dudok was a generation younger than Berlage he shared the same view that architecture consists of good division and grouped massing. He took this into careful consideration when designing Raadhuis Hilversum as well as the fact that the modern Town Hall that he was going to design had to carry out a dual function; one being the crown and symbol of the garden city, the place where the governance occurs, and the other being an equally functional and efficient office building that accommodates various council members, mayors and other organisations as well as local Town traditions such as weddings and special events3.

Ben Merkabach, a postwar functionalist architect, also

compared the two buildings (the Beurs van Berlage and Raadhuis) in a much more negative light. He saw Berlages Amsterdam Beurs as work of someone having something new to say, a building which will only grow in the time that the building was completed.

When it came to the Raadhuis Hilversum he asked himself whether in 25 years’ time the building would still receive the same appreciation as it did when it was completed.

In his view whether it being beautiful or unattractive it could not be regarded as modern and concluded with, “the monumentality that the Hilversum Raadhuis expressed is of little use for the future”3.

Merkelbach was to be later proved wrong as the Hilversum Town Hall has exponentially grown in popularity over the past years and has overtaken the Beurs building which is now seen as being ‘too rigid’ and ‘gloomy’.

Furthermore, the most important Modern architects of that time, Sigfried Giedion, Henry-Russel Hitchcock, Philip Johnson, and Reyner Banham were less appreciative of Raadhuis. They saw it

being not-compliant to the conventions of the usual modern architecture in the 1930s3.

Whereas, Lewis Mumford an American literary critic, who was well-known for his study of cities and urban architecture saw the building a “native and humane form of modernism” but was also known as for as being a ‘middle-of-the-road’ architect who didn’t quite understand the guidelines of modernism 3.

Once opened, the city of Hilversum commended Dudok for the balance of form and function as an example of modern architecture and most of all its monumentality. Dudok stated “monumentality is the purest expression of the human sense of harmony and order”, giving his created design a traditional yet fine crafted building5 . Whereas some architectural critics disagreed with the arrangement of the building, claiming it ‘nonstructural’ and ‘proportionally irresponsible arrangement of shape’, stating that “Dudok’s modernist designs or be halfway modernism, playing another contemporary, rather than create a formal language itself. By insisting that its

Figure 8 The Redbrick Exchange building – Beurs van Berlage

architecture lacked a specific style, critics suggested that their designs were not fluent, thus limited to a strict formula for the entire architecture”5. This non-conformity lead architects to refer to his ‘style’ as a hybrid of various movements rather than a creation of individualism, and colloquially known as ‘going Dudokey’.

Ironically before the Town Hall design, Dudoks oeuvre was mocked by architects as being repetitive and tiresome but as time went on his design style developed, taking inspiration from other modernists making his ‘Dudokey’ style anonymous within the architectural movement. Due to this, the Hilversum Town Hall became an influential and architectural pinnacle of his career.

James Burford, a lesser known architect, wrote in 1930 a brief description of ‘Modern architecture’ as follows; “Architecture is not merely building, not even building well. It is not so simple as that. Architecture is building ordered or controlled to express an idea or an emotion appropriate to its purpose, its position in time, and, above all, to its creators” 6. The ideal

modern building was inspired by the Bauhaus and by Le Corbusier where structure and function ruled over what could have been a stylistic revolution. Dudok did in fact long to branch out from the renaissance-esque stylistic era and commented ‘ I am getting rid of decoration in my work to an ever-increasing extent.

The building volumes should be their own ornament, and should generate such intense effects that all adorning details are completely superfluous” showing that he strived to create a Town Hall that naturally flowed with the structure and function of the building. Whether being intentional or not, Dudok’s military background during the war would have played a role in his design too. For example, sightlines have been considered to allow people to monitor events from many positions out of the south façade, this also applies to the drawing office where you have a view across the south pond keeping visibility of the main entrance clear.

‘Romantic modern’ architecture, part of the international expressionist

movement and sometimes linked to German brick expressionism, was a revolution welding fantasy and function into one concept using lines and form - building as a piece of sculpture but using the appropriate materials sometimes with renaissance details. In the new architecture that was emerging ‘Romantic modern’ as shown in the works of the ‘Amsterdam school’ era Dudok attempted to integrate romantiscm with the “de Stijl” approach (see Fig.9.). Similar Dudok style architecture involving public buildings was employed all over England in the 1930s due to the English brick construction and long horizontal windows, almost Voysesy-esque. Such as the Curzon Cinema and Webley Town Hall (Fig.10.), the English architects saw this as a new movement in architecture7.

As Paul Bromberg in 1944 wrote in ‘Architecture in the Netherlands’8 – “The way in which Dudok included geometrical elements in his design was always dependent on his personal interpretation of the specific issues at stake” showing although Raadhuis Hilversum did not lack its

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Figure 9 Amsterdam School era

Figure 10 Webley Town Hall -1948

social significance, it also didn’t make explicit the principles of modernism as his work wasn’t universal and viewed as being problematic by other critics who rejected his form of work3.

Whereas J.J Vriend a Dutch modern architecture critic in the 1950s was split between two opinions: being Dudoks work consisted of a ‘salon cubism’ nature, because ‘the original cubism of the abstract and functionalist period had been elaborated by Dudok into a more acceptable, coquettish design’. But in contrast, he thought Dudoks architecture was a ‘clever and intelligent play of romanticism contrasts of the construction elements’ and used a ‘sensitive refined choice of material and colour’3.

Dudok acknowledged himself that the Hilversum Town Hall, and many other designs did not conform to a specific era and commented in his essay ‘To Live and Build’, “I know … that my work does not have the strength of conviction of architectonic impression of a single conception. I know also that it is difficult to classify my work”9. One could say that abiding by the rules and regulations express

the modern era would lead to extreme complexity, however unique style can be acceptable because it is the intention behind the architecture that matters, not its modernists superficial. As said by Dudok, “art is never a matter of form but of spirit’ 9 As well as Dudok being a successor to Berlage they also shared many similar views, one being their personal definition of style. Berlage once said, “It seems to me that if we face our problems on this reasonable basis … then no doubt a spiritual unity will be manifested in all our work. And that, after all, is style”. This definition of style unlike most architects who approach their work in a similar aesthetical manor – leading to categorisation of styles and movements, meant that each architects oeuvre has aesthetics of their own with signature design moves that unify their work. The Beurs Berlage building (see Fig. 8.) spoken about earlier, showed a rule abiding modernist design, exposed structure and clarity as well as spatial experience.

Dudok argued, that no single aesthetic approach can express

the modern era and all its complexities, however style can, being the ‘proportional juxtaposition’ or ‘disposition’ of many related and nonrelated elements 9 Willem Dudok engaged with modernism but during the time when concrete and steel were popular in use he carried on with his traditional English brickwork as the surface material for majority of his work (Hilversum Town Hall for example). This meant that he made modernism look mainstream rather than avant garde. Dudok was overlooked as a modernist architect and absent from the first-generation studies of modern architecture due to his work not conforming to a specific aesthetic agenda.

He was heavily influenced by a variety of movements such as; Amsterdam school expressionism, De Stijl functionalism, Cubism and Dutch vernacular architecture.

Due to concoction of styles Dudok was thought of by other architects as a ‘middle-ofthe-road’ architect who could conform to a general style.

Inauthentic architecture also known as ‘stylism’ where “forms became a sort of

packaging” of different styles, rather than a “disciplined result of attention to the functional discipline suggested by a task”.

Unlike other architects who were praised or dismissed for their authenticity, Dudoks work was known to supply countless examples of ‘stylism’ for example the Hilversum Town Hall. Condoned by other architects admitting the halfmodernism, cubism-esque approach, Raadhuis Hilversum was his magnus opus as an architect. Although he did not abide by the same ‘modernist’

rules he did in fact produce a building with harmonic form, function, art and human need.

These leads one to argue, should designs be filtered down to styles, the architects free attitude towards his build always leads to individual variation and it’s with this variation society can design for a diverse purpose.

Ajay Mahay Footnotes 1 Emanuel, Muriel Contemporary Architects – 1980 pg 217 2 Hilversum Town Hall en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/Hilversum-

Town-Hall/ - Last updated Feb 13th 2017 3 Herman van Bergeijk - Willem Marinus Dudok - 010 Published – pg 25, 44, 60, 153-159 4 Wendingen -H.T. Zwiers - Over de gebouwen van de Firma van Nelle - Series 11, issue 2 – 1930 (magazine) 5 Holzbauer, Wilhelm, “Willem Marinus Dudok. Town Hall, Hilversum, the Netherlands. 1928–31,” Global Architecture: An Encyclopedia of Modern Architecture, 58 (1981) 6 James Burford,”Old Wine in New Bottles”,A.Rev. Sept.1930, p.131.

7 1996- Well Coates – And his position in the beginning of the modern movement in England 8 Paul Bromberg. Architecture in the Netherlands 94 p. Illus., New York, 1944, Netherlands Information Bureau Pg 262-263 9 Deborah Barnestone -Willem Marinus Dudok: the lyrical music of architecture -2015 10 Hilversum Town Hall greatbuildings.com/buildings/Town_Hall_ Hilversum – 1994-2013

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The Bauhaus Enterprise Universal or Perfected Culture?

The Staatliches Bauhaus was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933. With all its success a new culture was dictated and created through the Bauhaus era. To argue the success of the Bauhaus and its created culture we must substantiate through three main strands of text firstly analysing the core history of the Bauhaus, understanding its context and influences. Then interpret the views theorists had on the Bauhaus platform and finally critic the physical presence of the Bauhaus in Dessau, a monument for modernist design and perception. Lastly encapsulating the Bauhaus culture and any relationship with the Bauhaus’ physical appearance in Dessau.

Preparatory work on Modernist architecture was ventured prior to the first world war with the foundations of modernism being built and pioneered by architect Charles Rennie MacIntosh, with the Glasgow School of Art [fig 1] being built as early as 1896– 99. At this early stage the movement was growing with structures following this build such as the Austrian Postal

Savings Bank and the AEG Turbine Factory, designed by architects Otto Wagner and Peter Behrens, 1904-1906 and 1909. The actual fruition of modernist architecture came after the war by the mid 1920’s. “With the defeat of the German armies in 1918, and the collapse of the imperial order, Muthesius’ dream of a unified, natural Kultur guided by an elite of artist and technocrats was shattered.”

1 Hermann Muthesius was a German architect with a rare style that went on to inspire and influence Walter Gropius and other leading architects such as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe2. This belief that the most Elite of artists and technocrats would lead a way to a unified future is what helped Muthesius found the Deutscher Werkbund. “A trade organisation heavily influenced by the English Arts & Crafts movement”3 his desire was to create a higher standard of “artistic production” to ‘industrial products”4.

Muthesius and Gropius’ theoretical views were far from identical, Gropius joined Werkbund in 1910 where there was a fiery, philosophical

debate ongoing. Muthesius argued mostly on behalf of Sempers theories, where he believed style was determined by “need, materials, functions and use.”5 Muthesius views showed the transcendence rather the suppression of identity resulting in the creation of universal structure when creating any form6. This conflicted with Gropius core beliefs as he argued on the side of Van de Velde’s [fig 2] theory which was “rooted to the arts and crafts” and “rejected of the spirit of age.”7 Where there is more individuality and greater freedom for the artist. This became a fiery dispute over the role of the newly evolving designer into the near future of the twentieth century. This divide between Gropius and Muthesius came as quite the surprise to everyone outside of the Deutscher Werkbund establishment.

Before Gropius stood as “champions of Muthesius’ ideal of standardization.”8 His role with Muthesius showed collaboration between the architects until Gropius founded the school of Bauhaus. Merging two institutions in Weimar: the

Portrait of Van de Velde by artist Nicola Perscheid (1904) .

old Academy of Fine Arts and Kunstgewerbeschule which was founded by Van de Velde 1906.9 Henry Van de Velde was forced to leave and fight for his country in 1914 due to World War One and the Bauhaus was then founded on the 12th April 1919.10 Gropius’ accepted to endorse the school of arts once ran by Van de Velde showing his belief for the future of a designer in the coming of the twentieth century were complementary of Van de Velde not Muthesius. The Weimar Republic after the war were left with large, empty weaponry making factories with no source of production. With this came economical chaos as the people of Weimar were left with no jobs and a result came the reaction of a revolution and political extremists from both the left and right parties.

The time of the founding gave Gropius support from the state government and this odd marriage of institutions began the recovery of German form and culture.11 In Gropius’ Bauhaus Manifesto and Program he argues that his views on the arts and the creation of an

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Figure 1 Glasgow School of Art Building designed by architect Charles Rennie MacIntosh.

‘elite’ craftsman could spark a revival of Weimar’s once strong economy. He states that “The old schools of art were unable to produce this unity; how could they, since art cannot be taught.”12 Not only does this show the importance that fuels Gropius’ teaching methods at the Bauhaus but that Gropius found the traditional ways of teaching art, at the time was wrong. His image of the future he had, was constructed by his belief that architects, sculptors & painters “all must return to the crafts.”13 Without this barrier that separates an artist to a craftsman there will be the creation of a new craftsman that could “create a new structure for the future”14 which would embrace all the arts as a whole. This blend of an artist and the craft, was under the supremacy of German expressionism. “One day rise towards heaven from the hands of a million workers like a crystal symbol of a new faith.”15 Gropius had admiration for gothic, ‘volk’ architecture and he believed by creating this ‘new craftsman’ that he could initiate a new modern era and his belief could become a

reality. William Curtis writes on Gropius’ aspirations and strong beliefs and states “Gropius’ expresses belief in the necessity for reuniting aesthetic sensibility and utilitarian design.”16 Gropius showed this strong desire for creating the ‘complete’ building and created the ‘cathedral of Socialism’ [fig 3] this is described by Curtis as “a jagged, expressionist image soaked in visionary sentiments”.17 Reading this implies the hope Gropius’ had that architecture could become the main stature of the arts once again and reading the account from Curtis this belief was clearly understood by authors many years later.

Surprisingly the Bauhaus curriculum began with no mention to architecture until 1925 where the Bauhaus continued in Dessau. The first year at the Bauhaus was not at all easy or an upwards success, the opposition of the people of Weimar accused the students of being bizarre and accused the school of being an “artistic dictatorship.”18 A strong and rare perspective on the Bauhaus that shows the quickening of change

that was occurring at that time with the teaching of the arts. Without the balance of existing art teachers and the new routine at the Bauhaus, Gropius’ believed his students needed much greater guidance from his tutors.19 Gropius’ strong fascination on creating a perfect craftsman was a guarantee of design quality.

Students were expected to learn weaving which was apparent when needing to create the new ‘art’.20 This showed the craftsmanship needed but in composition with other modules were expected to learn such arts as form, colour, texture and expressionism. These would be tutored by painters such as Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer.21 But to proceed to this level first every student must go through a foundation course ran by Johannes Itten this was Gropius way of wiping away any “European ‘academic’ habits and clichés”.22 Itten began this process with a six month series of compulsory theory courses.

“To free the students… develop the students threefold trains of the mind, senses and emotions”.23 Gropius then hoped through this process

of Itten’s work students would have to tap into their deepest thoughts and creative roots to result in “instinctive expressionism” that when practiced would blossom into a design of a furniture, building or sculpture with purpose.

“The ultimate end of all artistic activity is building!”24 The Bauhaus espoused utopian like ideas and the Bauhaus program was made clear that along with the theatre, the furniture and workshops, that architecture was meant to be the heart of the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus was commissioned by the town of Dessau and the building work began autumn 1925. “It was completed in a year and was opened December 1926, the whole building covers an area of 2630 sqm.”25 Gropius goes on in his book about the structure of the Bauhaus, “ferroconcrete skeleton with brickwork.

Reinforced block ceilings on bearers… Outer skin cement rendering Kim silicate paint.”26 This account from Gropius tells me the details but gives me little indication to the senses. How someone would see or feel the building and its presence. With any building it is the architects

purpose to play with the user of that building make them feel a certain way, in a certain situation or surrounding. This is implemented through the design. An aspect of design that was carefully played with within the Bauhaus was space. “an intense spatial delight… brought about by its space’s airy brightness.”27 The openness inside the workshop with the uniformed glass facade inboxing the space would open up the work place and put you in direct contact with the outside world and lush landscapes of Dessau.28 Inside the core of the building you would understand the trusting relationship that external and internal had from the aura brought from the clarity of the facade.29 Adolf Max Vogt also commented on the Bauhaus facade and said he saw a floating “Eucildean body”.30 This description from Adolf Max Vogt also refers to the essence the glass facade portrays on the workshop wing of the Bauhaus. Gropius use of sparing material and his fixation of function opens up his workshop but similarly conceals his students within this geometric torso of the building. With this and its shear

size it is made clear Gropius intended for his workshop to be the most powerful element of his building.

The new building was said to include the technical school which was a requirement from the city council. “Enough space had to be placed to show independence through the appearance”.31 This was needed to show independence to the School of Bauhaus.

They tackled this problem by positioning one on the left hand side and the other on the right of the ‘Leopolddank Road’ this resulted in the two very different parts of the school facing each other showing clear independence and purposeful hierarchy. This ‘seperation’ was shown clearly through plan but with both under the same roof the design shows unity with the technical and artistic parts of the school conjoined by a bridge. This bridge that linked the two parts of the schools had many initial designs, [fig 4] Gropius believed if the bridge was to big, the function and space inside would have to be shared and Gropius saw this space to be the prestigious architecture department. [fig 5] Too slender and the space

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Figure 4 sketch design from Gropius.

Figure 5 sketch design from Gropius.

Figure 5 initial sketch design from Gropius.

Figure 3 Lyonel Feininger. Cathedral (Kathedrale) “The cathedral of Socialism” 1917

wouldn’t be prestigious at all and would lack any sort of power or importance.32 “A flat roof, laid over the cubic building like a protective cloth.”33 The author implies that both academic and art departments are shielded as a unity, Gropius decided to design the building as an educational complex. “When the building was opened it didn’t seem like a block within a single perspective. But more like an accumulation of independent buildings due to differing volume , height and spatial design.”34 This reads as the required member adds more significance to the building as the buildings functions are equally as independent to the building itself. Gropius’ agreed “One has to walk around this building to grasp its corporeality and functioning elements.” 35 Sigfried Giedion too wrote in retrospect to the functional elements of the building in 1941. “Gropius broke the ‘single viewpoint’ just like Picasso in his painting L’Arlésienne”.36 Comparing Gropius’ work to Picasso’s was complementing ones work to the highest of degrees, from this [Fig 6] you can perceive

the concept Giedion was trying to describe. The idea that the Bauhaus with its separate educational nodes, geometrically bonded together in a systematic, sharp-edged way is almost maze like and results in the Bauhaus having no singular point of view much like the portrait from Picasso.37 Gropius had this idea of a fully coated facade made of glass to maximise light [fig 7]. A Student’s eyes are used greatly when creating any art and the more natural light the better.

Gropius designed “A facade only bearing its own weight kneeling to the floor like a curtain of glass”.38 This concept did come with its flaws, such as the buildings orientation was causing the high sun to flood the workshops with unbearable light and heat. The result of this meant curtains were placed to abandon the link from inside and out. This Morden Facade shows connection to the culture of the Bauhaus.

Gropius wanted a facade that seemed “unfounded, unsupported and yet stable in a mysterious way”39 plus the body of the building sat on a smaller base eluding the traditional opposite. Both these aspects

portray what Gropius’ belief and aims were, to create a new art something that would stand out and people would question.

Something clean and alien to everyone. Walter Gropius had partially experimented with this glass facade design as he made the Fagus shoe factory, 7 years prior to the Bauhaus. This was the first complete facade that was coated in glass. This gave the building unity with its surroundings and created this unprecedented sense of openness and continuity from the inside and outside.

The Bauhaus’ appearance in Dessau shows both the historical institution of the Bauhaus and its ‘avant-grande’ architecture. The building with an ora of rational boldness and power portrayed by its appearance stands following a period of economical turmoil.40 The Bauhaus was built at a period when the city was beginning to expand “roads were built, but hardly any buildings”.41 The land was a brown site and the Bauhaus was a “reaction to the road system in a new part of Dessau which it started to form a permanent link with a bridge.

The Bauhaus’ physical position

Figure 6 L’Arlesienne by Picasso and The Bahaus by Gropius

has a very little relationship with its natural surroundings.

The grande bearing facade doesn’t face north to the lush views as expected, instead the facade faces west.42 Gropius’ beliefs and views guided his vision of perfection.

This was provided to not only those who actively worked inside the building but as the culture was created the Bauhaus allowed perfection to be seen and practiced through day to day objects and actions. With Gropius’ fixation on functionalism people could see the true benefits of the Bauhaus movement, the process of efficiency through material resulting in economical gain. This pattern of perfection through a crafters efficiency complemented the mass producing process and the Bauhaus platform excelled.

Exploring these aspects of history and context I was allowed to critically assess the physical building in Dessau.

The use of linking all the arts to create a body of craftsmanship was only then found after dividing and stripping the students of all European habits and clichés. The resemblance I cant help but notice from

the manifesto created many years back and to the design of the Bauhaus in Dessau is considerable.

The lack of curtains on the sweeping glass facade and the little places someone could hide inside and outside the building. With large open spaces and a clear relationship of exterior and internal creates personally a sense of pride and confidence as the students have become craftsman for the future and have no signs of European ‘clichés’ as drilled out in the Bauhaus programme.

As mentioned earlier this did cause a discussion on the strictness of the discipline in side the Bauhaus but the Bauhaus in Dessau became an enterprise in search for full success, to aspire and create beyond its boundaries in order to create a culture that was perfected universally for all.

Charles Kistnen Footnotes 1 Curtis, William.

Modern Architecture since 1900, Phaidon, 2 Ibid 3 http://library.columbia.edu haus cramer 4 Ibid.opcit 5 Idea structured from Gillian, Naylor. The Bauhaus Reassessed 1985 6 Gillian, Naylor. The Bauhaus Reassessed 1985

7 Van De Velde. Geschichte meines Lebens, Julius Posener pp.

199-205 8 Curtis, William.

Modern Architecture since 1900, Phaidon 9 Idea structured Curtis, William.

Modern Architecture since 1900, Phaidon 10 Walter, Gropius.

Bauhaus Manifesto and Program 1919 11 Op.cit 12 Ibid, 13 Ibid, 14 Ibid, 15 Ibid 16 Curtis, William.

Modern Architecture since 1900, Phaidon 1982 17 Ibid 18 Dr Emil Herfurth, spokesman of the ‘Citizen’sCommittee’ 19 structured idea from Periton, Dianna The Bauhaus as cultural paradigm 20 Walter, Gropius.

Bauhaus Manifesto and Program 1919 21 Idea structured from Curtis, William. Modern Architecture since 1900, Phaidon 22 Walter, Gropius.

Bauhaus Manifesto and Program 1919 23 Vitale, Elodie Le Bauhaus de Weimar: 1919-1925 pg. 180 24 Walter, Gropius op.cit 25 Walter, Gropius bauhausbauten Dessau, 1930, 26 Ibid 27 Behne, Adolf Bauen in Frankreich. Bauen in Eisen. Bauen in Eisenbeton 1928 28 Ideas on senses constructed from von, Herausgegeben, ICON OF MODERNISM. 29 Ibid 30 Adolf Max Vogt quote from ICON OF MODERNISM. 31 Margret Kentgene-Craig The Dessau Bauhaus 1926-1999 32 Architecture 01of 23 The Dessau Bauhaus 2011 [Documen- tary] 33 ibid, 34 Ibid 35 Margret Kentgene-Craig The Dessau Bauhaus 1926-1999 36 abstract taken from von, Herausgegeben, ICON OF MOD- ERNISM. 37 Abstract constructed from Giedion, Sigfried. Space, Time and Architecture. 1941 38 Ibid 39 Margret Kentgene-Craig The Dessau Bauhaus 1926-1999 40 Von, Herausgegeben, ICON OF MODERNISM. 41 Ibid, 42 Ibid

Friday March 31 2017

Figure 7 Glass facade on the west workshop wing of the Bauhaus. photogrphy by Lucia Mohoy

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Symbolism

Artistic Intent Chichu Art Museum - Tadao Ando The art museum has always been an unnerving subject for artists and architects alike. Frank Ghery’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is considered by many to be one of the most controversial, and in turn one of the best examples of the possible battle between art and architecture, and is in turn one of the best examples of how delicate art can be. The term “The Bilbao Effect” is one coined after the Guggenheim completely transformed the city of Bilbao. In the first three years of it’s conception the museum spurred on an estimated €500 million in tourism from almost 4 million architectural tourists on a pilgrimage to this “spectacle”.

The common criticism of such an eccentric (and popular) design is that the architecture itself in a way upstages the art within.

Does the architecture become the primary display, with the art within left under appreciated on the sidelines? Concrete, and despite it being almost completely underground, Ando has worked a number of light wells into the building, revealing interior courtyards to the sky and incorporating natural light subtly into the interior labyrinth. The building boasts accommodating a continuum between art,

architecture and nature, a claim that could make Chichu arguably much more valuable than Ghery’s Guggenheim and whilst I find myself acclaiming Chichu as a great success, due to the lack of English text surrounding the building, I have found myself looking towards Online reviews for criticism, which I fear may not be the most worthy sparring partner more valuable than Ghery’s Guggenheim and whilst I find myself acclaiming Chichu as a great success, due to the lack of English text surrounding the building, I have found myself looking towards Online reviews for criticism, which I fear may not be the most worthy sparring partner.

The visitors journey begins at a long concrete wall that cuts into a mountain with a doorway on its far side. Upon entering the doorway the visitor experiences a long pathway, enclosed by two tall concrete walls on either side and the sky left as the only remnant of the outside world.

The only prospect is visible up ahead - enclosure indicating an entrance. The visitor is lead through a concrete tunnel until they go past two courtyards that are again open to only the sky, with the return wall that cuts

into a mountain with a doorway on its far side. Upon entering the doorway the visitor experiences a long pathway, enclosed by two tall concrete walls on either side and the sky left as the only remnant of the outside world.

The only prospect is visible up ahead - enclosure indicating an entrance. The visitor is lead through a concrete tunnel until they go past two courtyards that are again open to only the sky, with the return of their concrete enclosure, this time with walls much higher than their earlier passageway, with dark slits reaching an strictly imaginable distance beyond your visible barriers evoking questions on what may lay behind, if anything.

Here in this courtyard, the grass and the sky are the only rations of nature that Ando allows into the structure, making the experience feel so perfect that it is almost artificial. It becomes increasingly clearer that the building has been designed specifically for the experience of the user, and in my opinion is incredibly successful at doing so. The recreation of a pen like courtyard resembling what 2 star trip advisor reviewer Jim002 described as “designed to feel like a WWII bunker”, the curation of nature stripped to it’s purest

form and more importantly voluntary attendance blend together to force the visitor into the almost meditative state of feeling calm, isolated and engulfed. Whilst criticism can and should be placed in Ando’s seemingly instantaneous decision to use his signature material without consideration without consideration for the current stakeholders, a decision that questions the specificity of the structure, this consenting presence of the holders, a decision that questions the specificity of the structure, this consenting presence of the visitor along with the current tolerance the world (and especially the Japanese people due to their historical use of plaster) has built to the once perceived “Brutalist” material. I think it is hard to still use such a word for a material that has been used in nearly every architectural typology, including the delicate.

The visitor is then lead around an enclosed winding ramp hidden behind the concrete wall, curling around the outer periphery of the courtyard and the dark slits in the wall are reversed, becoming windows to where you once were, leaving only thin ribbons of light and nature to hang onto.

The visitor is then led through a

long dark corridor, and towards what is subjectively the first work of art.

This paragraph is largely a statement designed to emphasize the effect, or lack of, that this subterranean structure has on the visitor. I glossed over the absence of external structure easily, which highlights a choice Ando has made which easily deters one of the main arguments of the Bilbao effects main critics in a way that I consider to be worthy of praise. The Pompidou center is often criticized for its complex and colorful exoskeleton, that is clearly a public spectacle, something pronounced by the crowds of people who often gather on the hard concrete with heads held high facing the extravagant display for extended periods of time, a privilege that the artists within do now have.

Chichu art museum cleverly evades this obstacle, and by carving the building into the landscape itself brings about a link to nature, a common theme among the artists work, Walter De Maria with his transcendent interpretationum cleverly evades this obstacle, and by carving the building into the landscape itself brings about a link to nature, a common theme among the artists work, Walter De Maria with his transcendent interpretations of this world, James Turrell with his manipulations of nature, mainly light, and the more primarily observable relationship to the subject of Monet’s work, where a set of 5 paintings are depictions of nature itself. Ando also has similar ties of his own, and imprints these cleverly onto the experience of the visitor.

Shinto religion in it’s purest form reveres nature, and advertises the zen state of meditation that Ando evokes in his work.

The continuum boasted to link artwork and architecture is greatly strengthened through these associations to nature and the landscape, a flow which creates fluidity of thought and experience and such rich simplicity validates the claims towards his “haiku” effect.

After being prepared for the artwork ahead the visitor is led to Walter Di Maria’s room, which is teased by a doorway pouring out light which is so scarce along the journey to it, tempting the visitor into imagining what could lie within, and suddenly another layer of understanding is added to Ando’s quote “I wanted light penetrating the darkness to give direction to the architecture”. When the visitor peeks in, they are treated to something magnificent; a huge hall, with a set of steps stretching to the parameters of the room, all consistent with the rest of the building’s material but shown in a completely different light quite literally. The convex white ceiling has a perfect rectangle carved out of it and projects the ever changing natural light.

Concrete shelves are arranged along the high walls and tactfully camouflage themselves among the gray, only to be exposed by their shadows. Triplets of square golden rods are levitated upon them, all rotated to encode the most tangible homage to the title of the piece “time/timeless/ no time”. Then comes the focal point of the room, a glistening black sphere solemnly sitting at the top of the staircase. I struggle to put such an ineffable piece into words, and I consider images of the piece to be detrimental to it’s

intentions, which is a large part of why I have decided to gamble and abstain from images, and is also why I have leaned towards such descriptive text which I hope does this work justice. I consider the piece among the gray, only to be exposed by their shadows. Triplets of square golden rods are levitated upon them, all rotated to encode the most tangible homage to the title of the piece “time/timeless/ no time”. Then comes the focal point of the room, a glistening black sphere solemnly sitting at the top of the staircase. I struggle to put such an ineffable piece into words, and I consider images of the piece to be detrimental to it’s intentions, which is a large part of why I have decided to gamble and abstain from images, and is also why I have leaned towards such descriptive text which I hope does this work justice. I consider the piece to be some sort of meditative speculation on what may be. I see the black sphere as a deity or creator of some sort, silently observing the visitors.

The nature of its sphericality coupled with its reflectivity gives it a truly omnipotent existence.

The visitor can travel freely around the sphere, but they can never be behind it. There is also no place to hide. There is no nook or cranny achievable in this room that can hide you from the reflection in the spheres surface.

My thoughts on the golden rods are much less assertive, which has a interesting impact on the way I view them. I see variation, and in reference to the title of the piece, I see situation.

The traditional preparation for the psychoactive concoction Ayahuasca involves a 2 week ritual, to cleanse the body and mind, and the process contains three processes: meditation, reflection and evoking curiosity.

I believe Chichu has mirrored this process, and i’t makes it increasingly clear that i’m within the work of Tadao Ando - an architect who has addressed phenomenology throughout his career, and has been surrounded by the ideas of Zen and inward thought his entire life.

In a building with such thought provoking work, the journey between art is incredibly important, something which most gallery’s struggle to handle.

Similarly to the criticisms of the Guggenheim, artwork can easily such thought provoking work, the journey between art is incredibly important, something which most gallery’s struggle to handle. Similarly to the criticisms of the Guggenheim, artwork can easily upstage other artwork, an occurrence that can easily be due to viewing order rather than the impact of the work, a point which could easily be considered trivial.

Ando’s way of dealing with this problem is by introducing long bare pathways between the works to act as an emotional “palette cleanser” clearing as much of the impact of previous works as possible before introducing them to what comes next. After leaving Walter Di Maria’s room we are forced to navigate through a disorientating combination of pathways that constantly change their topologies. We are reminded of the outdoors again by this slit of nature visible through an aperture running along the wall, before the pathway widens to the left to create something similar to a wide open waiting room. I found that it was my experience of Di Maria’s space that inspired

Friday March 31 2017 me to frivolously navigate my way towards the work of Turrell, which in turn caused the cleansing of emotion that was intended of the spaces, and that it was this distracting navigation that helped me to forget about the effect of Di Maria’s work. I was almost unprepared to experience Turrell’s work, as there was no preparation or teasing involved in it’s delivery. I walked round a corner and there it was, Turrell’s 1968 piece “Afrum, Pale Blue” an almost holographic cube floating in mid air, rotating as your perspective changes, and illuminating the room, or at least that was the intended experience of the work. I first saw the work for what it truly was, a blue projection of a hexagon placed symmetrically over the corner of a wall, brighter down it’s center and I feel as though it is the experience of both of these states that define the piece of work. A transient trick, leading you to believe in the future, only to tell you that it was a trick of your eyes, reminding us that what we experience is not fixed, that we can mislead ourselves. In the meditative world Ando has created, this causes a deep sense of introspection but with a tinge of unsettling self doubt, and the next piece of work by Turrell continues to affirm this. Around the corner sits Turrell’s second piece “Open Field” - 2000, which is guarded by gallery employees wearing white lab coats who are there to guide you through the experience. Small groups are led into the room and sit on a bench facing a flat blue rectangle on the wall with experience of both of these states that define the piece of work. A transient trick, leading you to believe in the future, only to tell you that it was a trick of your eyes, reminding us that what we experience is not fixed, that we can mislead ourselves. In the meditative world Ando has created, this causes a deep sense of introspection but with a tinge of unsettling self doubt, and the next piece of work by Turrell continues to affirm this. Around the corner sits Turrell’s second piece “Open Field” - 2000, which is guarded by gallery employees wearing white lab coats who are there to guide you through the experience. Small groups are led into the room and sit on a bench facing a flat blue rectangle on the wall with 6 steps leading up to it. After a moment the visitor is invited to ascend these steps and approach the rectangle on the wall, and as they become face to face with it, they are asked to step inside, and to the visitors bewildered delight the rectangle on the wall becomes a fluorescent neon room they are free to explore, with undefined boundaries and a strange form of tactile perspective created by the floor and ceiling sloping towards each other at their ends, and again the feelings evoked in “Afrum, Pale Blue” rush back, amplified by the engulfing weight of the piece. The position of the next piece of work in incredibly clever. “Open sky” - 2004 is again right around the corner from the previous piece, but despite it’s similarities to the work so close by, it begins the cleanse of the emotion that may be detrimental to the experience of the building as a whole. The misleading, artificial characteristics of James Turrell’s work are dropped, as a framed image of nature we experienced earlier in the journey takes it’s place in the form of a

room with a tapered square cut out of it’s ceiling. The white walls and ceiling frame the sky as if it was placed in a gallery, and the continuum between architecture and nature is reintroduced to celebrate and draw out the knowledge of beauty in nature, and the thought that this canvas will never be experienced in the same way by any two people gives the work an incredibly poetic singularity expressive only by the natural world.

The journey to Monet’s waterlilies is similar to that of the others. We are lost within a concrete maze, with no reference to the outside world to pin our position to causing a looming lack of place which makes the Monet room’s entrance incredibly interesting in contrast. We meet a narrow slit in the wall to our left, but the pathway does not stop to force us in, we are again invited by change. A bright white wall, which fades into what appears to be a speckled white floor is placed maybe a metre froframe the sky as if it was placed in a gallery, and the continuum between architecture and nature is reintroduced to celebrate and draw out the knowledge of beauty in nature, and the thought that this canvas will never be experienced in the same way by any two people gives the work an incredibly poetic singularity expressive only by the natural world.

The journey to Monet’s waterlilies is similar to that of the others. We are lost within a concrete maze, with no reference to the outside world to pin our position to causing a looming lack of place which makes the Monet room’s entrance incredibly interesting in contrast. We meet a narrow slit in the wall to our left, but the pathway does not stop to force us in, we are again invited by change. A bright white wall, which fades into what appears to be a speckled white floor is placed maybe a metre from the opening of the door and is angled away from the visitor on the left as if to funnel them through. At the time it is unclear what the viewer will be stepping into, whether it is a room or a pathway is not defined, and as they begin to step inwards this feeling is continued, as they appear to see a plain room with concrete benches placed around its walls but then as they begin to rotate they view the first piece of work in it’s entirety, as a huge painting of Monet’s “Water Lilies” becomes visible, and the masses of natural light Ando has so carefully funnelled into the room begin to light begin to light both the countless number of strokes on Monet’s paintings, and definition in the 700,000 2cmx2cm hand carved white marble tiles coating the floor.

The piece of work more than deserves such an introduction, as the piece made up of two landscape canvas’ placed together would be dishonoured by a concrete wall shaving away at it, and in this ongoing battle between art, architecture and every other stakeholder, Ando’s tiles become a beautiful ode to Monet’s impressionist paintings, complementing them and tightening Chichu’s continuum.

Art, architecture and every other stakeholder, Ando’s tiles become a beautiful ode to Monet’s impressionist paintings, complementing them and tightening Chichu’s continuum.

Ando’s first building to come to public light, the “Azuma house”

acted as his subtle manifesto for architectural being, and also saw some both controversial and novel ideas come to fruition with a house that was quite clearly far from the norm. The essay presented at his pritzker prize ceremony stated that “his basic concept of creating introspective microcosms to stand against the urban chaos of the late modern world” - and in chichu proves that little changed in the 40 years following other than the Ando’s chance to briefly move away from the chaotic modern world and towards a site that allowed him to synthesise an isolated universe of his own that somehow also manages to becomes one with the peaceful flow of nature. Chichu can be used as a model example of how to successfully bridge the divide between art and architecture but there are two points that must also be taken into account. The first is that Ando was working with permanent collections that he could build both with and around, which allowed him to fine tune the experience of both architecture and art to the viewer which is a luxury most gallery can not afford, and the second is that 2 out of three of the collections, were quite literally the architecture themselves, being work that could not exist alone.

Ando has quite clearly in my opinion avoided the bilbao affect, but it would be incredibly hard for any gallery with a changing collection to recreate this sense of spatial spirituality. Whilst Ando also took steps to assure that everybody experienced the building’s spirituality as intended, many people considered these steps to be the major criticisms of the building, with subjects such as “no photography” and “refrain from talking loudly” being extremely common among trip advisors 1 star reviews. This kind of faint either or approach to the visitor is something that could definitely fuel critics of the museum, as it is not hard to see how one could consider his tunnels to be “narrow and claustrophobic” or how his use of concrete could tempt one into describing Chichu as a “weird concrete bunker”, but it is also completely understandable why Ando has made many of these choices, and one thing that has become apparent to be, through both my research and my writing, is that Chichu is a place for the willing, and that if you are not ready to accept and embrace the experiences that have been presented to you, it could be incredibly easy to disregard them.

Criticisms of the building, with subjects such as “no photography” and “refrain from talking loudly” being extremely common among trip advisors 1 star reviews. This kind of faint either or approach to the visitor is something that could definitely fuel critics of the museum, as it is not hard to see how one could consider his tunnels to be “narrow and claustrophobic” or how his use of concrete could tempt one into describing Chichu as a “weird concrete bunker”, but it is also completely understandable why Ando has made many of these choices, and one thing that has become apparent to be, through both my research and my writing, is that Chichu is a place for the willing, and that if you are not ready to accept and embrace the experiences that have been presented to you,

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it could be incredibly easy to disregard them.

Conor paul Footnotes 1 Crawford, Leslie. “Guggenheim, Bilbao, and the ‘hot banana’”, Financial Times,September 4 2001.

2 The Pritzker Architecture Prize. “Biography: Tadao Ando” http://www. pritzkerprize.com/1995/bio 4 March 2008.

3 http://benesse-artsite.jp/en/art/ chichu.html - 2008 4 Jim002. https://www.tripadvisor. co.uk/Attraction_Review-g1121428-d598766Reviews-Chichu_Art_Museum-Naoshima_cho_ Kagawa_gun_Kagawa_Prefecture_Shikoku.html, 26 December 2016.

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5 Masao Furuyama. “Tadao Ando”.

Taschen, 2006. ISBN 978-3-8228-4895-1.

6 Tadao Ando. Philip Jodidio, “Tadao Ando at Naoshima”, Foreword 2006.

7 Barbosa, P. C., Strassman, R. J., da Silveira, D. X., Areco, K., Hoy, R., Pommy, …

Bogenschutz, M. (2016) 8 Philip Jodidio. “Tadao Ando at Naoshima” 2006.

9 Kenneth Frampton, “Thoughts on Tadao Ando” 1995.

10 Jim002, JVerse. https://www. tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g1121428d598766-R e v ie ws-C hichu_Ar t_Mus eumNaoshima_cho_Kagawa_gun_Kagawa_ Prefecture_Shikoku.html, 26 December 2016.

11 Naoya Hatakeyama, Tadao Ando, James Turrell, Walter Di Maria. Chichu Art Museum 2005.

12 Helen Walters. https://www. creativereview.co.uk/the-island-of-inspiration/ 2010.

13 Dana Buntrock. https://www. architectural-review.com/today/teshima-artmuseum-by-ryue-nishizawa-teshima-islandjapan/8612052.article 4 March 2011.

14 Mohammadreza Shirazi.

“Architectural Theory and Practice, and the Question of Phenomenology” 2010.

15 Dagny Corcoran. “Right Place, Right Action, Right Time: Tadao Ando and Walter De Maria” 12 December 2013.

16 Ivan Ratkovic. “TADAO ANDO” 19 March 2012 17 Guy Hedgecoe, Helen Whittle.

“Bilbao’s Guggenheim continues to divide” 3 June 2012 18 Dale. “The Beneath the Earth Art of Chichu Art Museum, Naoshima”. view.com/today/teshima-art-museum-by-ryuenishizawa-teshima-island-japan/8612052.article 4 March 2011.

19 Mohammadreza Shirazi.

“Architectural Theory and Practice, and the Question of Phenomenology” 2010.

20 Dagny Corcoran. “Right Place, Right Action, Right Time: Tadao Ando and Walter De Maria” 12 December 2013.

21 Ivan Ratkovic. “TADAO ANDO” 19 March 2012 22 Guy Hedgecoe, Helen Whittle.

“Bilbao’s Guggenheim continues to divide” 3 June 2012 23 Dale. “The Beneath the Earth Art of Chichu Art Museum, Naoshima”.

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Symbolism

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Libeskind’s Jewish Museum tells its s Jewish Museum in Berlin - Daliel Libeskind Figure 2: Jewish Museum by Daniel Libeskind - aerial view: the ZIG ZAG structure

In 1988 an architectural competition for an extension of the Berlin Museum with its Jewish department was announced.

The Senate of Berlin invited Daniel Libeskind, at that time still unknown, to participate in it.

He won the competition only several months before the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The Jewish Museum was completely empty for two years after the builders had finished their works in 1999.

Despite the fact that there was no exhibition at that time thousands of people visited it.

An architectural experience which shows a fate of the Jews was stronger than expositions created later and the museum became very popular attraction in Berlin. The Jewish Museum is building of unregularly shape with three main paths and to the Berlin Museum is connected by underground. In this paper a symbolism of the building and narrative behind it is discussed.

Story behind

Daniel Libeskind is the second child of Polish Jews and Holocaust survivors. He was born in Lodz, a central part of Poland, very close to Berlin

and he lost most of his family members in the Holocaust.

This background even deepened his disbelief that the Jewish dimension should be just like any other department of the museum – as was written in the original competition brief. In a preface for Daniel Libeskind: Jewish Museum Berlin1 he pointed out that he did not know how hard it will be to build the museum which will show the Jewish dimension of Berlin’s history. One of the reasons in the beginning was that the catastrophe of Berlin’s history was in pre-unification days of Berlin frozen into an image and the Jewish Museum was also distant idea as the most competitions. With time and the collapse of the Berlin Wall Berliners started to think differently about their future which they could choose. The future with responsibility to an irrevocable and difficult past.

Libeskind said that the main reason why the building was constructed was just Berliners.

I will now talk about a number of important aspects, which influenced Daniel Libeskind and therefor they stand behind for the establishment of the Jewish

museum.

Before he switched his career to architecture Libeskind had studied music on a prestigious America – Israel Cultural foundation scholarship. He was really talented accordion virtuoso and also performed on the piano at the Carnegie Hall with Itzhak Perzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy. His interests in music affect his work where he focuses on acoustics more than other architects. “I think of acoustics first. I think we are too addicted to the visual world today. It is a great medium to promote visual work but the inner ear when you listen and your orientation is more prominent than seeing.” said Libeskind in his interview2 with Olivia Martin. Music became inspiration in most of his projects. In case of the Jewish museum it was specifically the music of Arnold Schoenberg and his opera called Aaron and Moses which became one of four aspects or sources of inspiration for the Jewish museum. Schoenberg did not finish it because he was exiled from the Berlin in the time leading up to the Holocaust.

For Libeskind this opera

symbolizes his own architecture with its dead ends and vacant spaces.3 The Second aspect was connection of relationships between well-known Jewish and non-Jewish Berliners such as Paul Celan, Max Liebermann, Heinrich von Kleist, Rahel Varnhagen, and Friedrich Hegel standing for the connections between Jewish tradition and German culture. As Libeskind wrote in the article for A&U, “I felt that certain people and particularly certain writers, composers, artists and poets formed the link between Jewish tradition and German culture. So I found this connection and I plotted an irrational matrix which was in the form of system of intertwining triangles which would yield some reference to the emblematic of a compressed and distorted star: the yellow star that was so frequently worn on this very site… ” . 4 [Fig. 1] Libeskind was interested in the names of people who were deported from Berlin during the Holocaust, so The Memorial Book for the Victims of the Nazi Persecution of the Jews in Germany5 became

Figure 1: Berlin star plan – The Jewish Museum Berlin by studio Daniel Libeskind

Friday March 31 2017

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Figure 3: The façade with strip windows

story Figure 4: Alex Martin Architect: Groumd plan for Jewish Museun

the third aspect. The last one aspect was the essay One-Way Street by Walter Benjamin.

“This aspect is incorporated into the continuous sequence of 60 sections along the zig zag, each of which represents one of the ‘Stations of the Star’ described in the text of Walter Benjamin’s apocalypse of Berlin,“ said Libeskind in the article6 for A&U. Libeskind moved with his wife to Germany on impulse to try to realize the museum.

He presented his project as a statement about a history of the Holocaust and marks which the Jews had left in this city. The symbolic abstraction is exceedingly strong and allows each visitor to perceive different elements on their own.

In the interview with Paul Goldberger in Counterpoint Libeskind says, “I think there are two projects in my career as an architect that were projects that I did not, in any way, have to research or go to the library for – the Jewish Museum Berlin and Ground Zero. Both were sort of viscerally part of my background, part of my experience, part of who I am…”7

Symbolism imprinted into the building

With the Jewish Museum Libeskind proved to be one of the biggest persons in the narrative architecture.

The building is very rich on symbolism and hidden meanings which is the reason why the building on its own shows the story more faithfully than any other collection.8 There are many reasons why this building is extra unordinary, but one of the reasons is its unusual shape [Fig.2] which is characteristic for his work.

Especially the motif of the zig-zag line is often contained in many of his project. It is also frequently combined with spirals and sails which together give the work a certain look that he keeps across all projects.

The reason why he does that is because he believes that, “architecture transcends local issues. Questions of space, light, and material, what makes a great building, are separate form client and site. Yet they are realised in a specific way according to genius loci.” 9 The zig-zag theme is derived from the second aspect of his

inspiration behind the building of which is spoken in the chapter above. It derived from irrational matrix which created distorted David’s Star.10 In the book Jewish Museum Berlin the authors state that, “the irrational matrix is also used on the façade, where it is reflected in the position of the strip windows that slash through the zinc panels, projecting a dramatic display of light onto the walls of the building’s interior, and allowing fleeting glimpses of the city as one moves through the exhibition spaces. … “11 [Fig. 3] Libeskind’s museum was one of the few projects that used a new type of construction.

It is clad in zinc and usually compared to Frank O. Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao regarding to the architectural skin. Libeskind made a note that his dim was not to make a shiny building like it was in Bilbao case. He specially picked non-oxidizes zinc coating rather than titanium to provide the façade the possibility to change colour and show other signs of aging.

What is on the other hand very similar between these buildings

is that the visitors come to see the actual buildings rather than the exhibitions The name might be the Jewish Museum Department but in the world it is better known for name “Between the lines“, which was given to the building by Libeskind himself. “I call it this because it is a project about two lines of thinking, organization and relationship. One is a straight line, but broken into many fragments; the other is a tortuous line, but continuing infinitely. … “, he explains in the article12 for A&U. These two lines define dialog. When they fall apart and are seen separate, the void13 is exposed.

The void runs through the whole museum and is made of six parts [Fig. 4]. Libeskind had to really fight for its existence, because for investors it was just unutilized space where mostly no one can enter. For him on the other hand the void was really important part of the building, which by defining and holding the jagged plan together, forms the spine of the structure, but also the metaphorical heart of the building.

“It is a space you enter in the museum that organises the

museum”, says Libeskind14, “and yet it is not part of the museum. It is not heated or air-conditioned. Furthermore, it is not really a museum space. It is something else the space of Berlin, because it refers to that which can never be exhibited when it comes to Jewish Berlin history: humanity reduced to ashes“.

It is a tall, cavernous, raw concrete space, lit by skylights and indirect slit windows.

Visitors can sense a presence of the void during their whole visit. It can be seen from interior through the windows, crossed by internal bridge or you can actually physically enter four parts of the void.

“You may feel strangely cold and isolated,“ said Jonathan Glancey15. The void symbolises the inexpressible „absence“ of the Jewish lives lost in the Holocaust16 and also the terrible void created by Adolf Hitler and his cronies. 17 This emblem was even underlined by enriching one part on the ground level “The Memory void” with the installation “Fallen Leaves” [Fig. 5] by Menashe Kadishman.

It consists from ten thousand faces with open mouths,

cut from heavy round iron plates. When visitors walk on them, the iron faces make harsh sound. By that sound Kadishman wanted to return the voice to the victims of the Holocaust.

Even if the Jewish Museum looks and it is designed as a separate building, when you look for its own entrance, you will not find it. The building is connected to the former Collegienhaus [Fig. 6], the baroque structure from eighteen century by Philipp Gerlach which was destroyed at the end of the Second World War and again rebuilt to the Berlin Museum. The invisible entrance is hidden there.

Roger Boyes cites Daniel Libeskind in his article for The Times and reveals the reason of the hidden entrance, “If the neo-Nazis want to blow up the Jewish Museum they will have to blow up their own history at the same time. The design shows that you cannot separate the histories of Berlin and other Jews except in catastrophe”.18 The old building has an entrance made of steep vertical stairs [Fig. 7] from concrete that leads visitors three storeys down into the darkness of

14

Symbolism

Figure 9: The Axis of the Holocaust, photo by Thomas Bruns

Figure 5: Memorty Void and Schalechet installation by Menasche Kadishman, photo by Jens Ziehe

Jewish museum. The change of materials, form and light is immediately noticeable which enhances the contrast of the transition from historical surroundings of Collegienhaus to the past of German Judaism.

The stairs end at the underground level consisted of three axes that represent the main paths where Jews went through in the history – the Exile, the Holocaust and the Continuity. The walls of these axes are fringed by display cases, where instead of museum object, donated object such as letters; photographs and etc. from individual people are exhibit and serve as a memorial. The visitor chooses his own direction of the path either to the Axis of Exile, the Axis of Holocaust or the Axis of Continuity. [Fig.8] The different options are named but not fully explained, so the result is that many visitors must go back several times to see the whole building.

The orientation in this building is one of a few problems which this building has. As Ken Gorbey, Project Director confirmed, ”it is a very difficult building to take the public through […]”.19 But it would

not be Libeskind if this was not his intention. The building was from the beginning intended to be confusing and somewhat threatening, because he felt that it is reflection of the Jew’s history. In the rest of the paper I will look more closely onto these axes one by one as the visitor walks through the building.

The first two axes go from the main axis. The floor is inclined which squares the feeling that they are closing up.

Both of them are dead ends and crossing each other, which physically and psychologically reflect the fates of Jews in the past. [Fig. 9] If you choose to go right to The Axis of Holocaust you will get to the most disconcerting space for most of the people – The Holocaust Tower. It is free standing concrete void with pentagon plan standing separately from the extension.

The massive black doors are the entrance to the tower. After they close with a reverberating bang, the visitors will appear in an empty enclosed space, where they can just focus on the sunlight getting into the several storeys high, dark and cold space only through a narrow

crack in the ceiling and the sounds of street being distorted into wailing. [Fig. 10] In visitors it evokes feelings of insecurity and depression, because “you feel impelled to reach for the light, but its source is so far above you that you would surely die in the attempt,”20 writes Glancey in The Guardian. Daniel Libeskind as a narrative architect often uses human fates in his work as a form of inspiration. The Holocaust tower is one of them. The tower is designed as a memory of woman who he read about in the book Tales of Hasidism Holocaust.

During her transportation to a concentration camp she started to lose her all hope and at that moment she saw piece of the sky and white line through a crack in the wagon.

Over the next years she clung to this sign as a source of her hope, the miracle will happen and she will survive that. Later she realized that it could have been just piece of cloud on the sky but important was that the light from the crack kept her in hope and alive. This story was so strong for Libeskind that he decided to project it in the Museum.

The second dead-end path The Axis of Exile ends by glass doors, which opens to the Hoffman Garden of Exile and Emigration.[Fig. 11] Libeskind said, “Hoffmann was the romantic writer of incredible tales, and I dedicated this garden to him because he was a lawyer working in a building adjacent to the site.”21 As well as in the case with Holocaust tower, architect translates the conceptual approach into a very physical, bodily experience. The glass doors are the connection to the outside world, but just visually.

The Garden combined from 49 pillars is made in 7x7 grid.

Forty-eight of them are filled with the soil of Berlin, which symbolize the year 1948 of Israel’s independence. In the middle there is a forty-ninth pillar filled with the soil of Israel and representing Berlin itself. On these pillars grow willow oak trees. The space where the garden is located on is tilled in double ten degree slope so the visitor is always out of balance. [Fig. 12] “We are sheltered in exile, on the one hand, but still somehow thrown off balance by it and disoriented at the same time,”22

Figure 13: The Axis of Continuity

explains James E. Young.

The main third axes The Axes of Continuity allows the visitors to escape from the uncomfortable dark space and get to the light space, used mostly as an exhibition space. The form of escape is metaphor for the attempt to move on from the ominous past, which Berlin wears on its shoulders. To get to the exhibit space you have to go up the three storey stairs. [Fig.13] As you get higher a large concrete structural members appear one by one above you and more natural light comes into the interior through strip windows.

As you finish the way up and look back, you can see the whole structure. In contrast with the two dead-ends axes The Axes of Continuity does not have any entrance, end or any other barrier which would stay in visitor’s way.

The Jewish Museum is well known all over the world and it has become one of the iconic museum buildings. The reason why is clear, Libeskind showed great skills in conceptual thinking but also achieved to take these conceptual thoughts and bring them into something alive, into something what

Friday March 31 2017

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Figure 10: The Holocaust tower, photo by Cyrus Penarroyo

Figure 7: Entrance stairs to Jewish museum, photo by Jens Ziehe

Figure 12: The Garden of Exile, poto by Lucy Pradella

the visitors can feel and also experience. Even if the building on its own is worth to visit, it does not affect the presented exhibition.

Katerina Mensikova Footnotes 1 Schneider, Bernhard and Daniel Libeskind, Daniel Libeskind: Jewish Museum Berlin : Between the lines, the preface of the book.

2 Martin, Olivia. ´Daniel Libeskind on Acoustics, his Unexpected Architectural Process, and his Latest Venture One Day in Life´, in The Architect’s Newspaper.

3 Great modern buildings: The Jewish museum, Berlin, The Guardian.

4 Libeskind, Daniel, The Jewish Museum: Between the Lines, in A&U, p. 102121.

5 Book contains just names, dates of birth, dates of deportation and presumed places where these people were murdered

121.

13

a word which in English also

means useless and invalid 14 Glancey, Jonathan, ‘Arts: The Hole in the heart Berlin’s Jewish Museum has opened with nothing to show but the building itself. But what better monument to the murdered millions than Daniel Libeskind’s zincclad Void?’, in The Guardian, p. 1-5.

15 Glancey, Jonathan, ‘Arts: The Hole in the heart Berlin’s Jewish Museum has opened with nothing to show but the building itself. But what better monument to the murdered millions than Daniel Libeskind’s zincclad Void?’, in The Guardian, p. 1-5.

16 Schneider, Bernhard and Daniel Libeskind, Daniel Libeskind: Jewish Museum Berlin : Between the lines, p. 102.

17 Glancey, Jonathan, ‘Arts: The Hole in the heart Berlin’s Jewish Museum has opened with nothing to show but the building itself. But what better monument to the murdered millions than Daniel Libeskind’s zincclad Void?’, In The Guardian, p. 1-5.

18 Boyes,Roger, Berlin Museum to Rejoice in Jewish Life, In The Times,

(1933 - 1945).

6 Libeskind, Daniel, The Jewish Museum: Between the Lines, in A&U, p. 102-

Berlin.

19 Reid, Sussanah, The Jewish Museum Berlin – A Review, University of New

121.

7 Libeskind, Daniel and Paul Goldberger, Counterpoint: Daniel Libeskind in

castle.

20 Glancey, Jonathan, ‘Arts: The Hole in the heart Berlin’s Jewish Museum has opened with nothing to show but the building itself. But what better monument to the murdered millions than Daniel Libeskind’s

conversation with Paul Goldberger, p.13.

8 Reid, Sussanah, The Jewish Museum Berlin – A Review, University of New castle.

9 Betsky, Aaron, What happens when paper architecture gets built?, In Archi-

Figure 11: The Garden of Exile, photo by Jens Ziehe

12 Libeskind, Daniel, The Jewish Museum: Between the Lines, in A&U, p. 102-

tecture, p. 101-123.

10 The Star of David is a six-pointed star made up of two quadrilateral triangles superimposed over each other, also known as a hexagram 11 Andenmatten, Stephen, Caitlin Walsh and James Wisnienski, Jewish Museum Berlin: Berlin, Germany, 2011.

zinc-clad Void?’, in The Guardian, p. 1-5.

21 Libeskind, Daniel, ‘1995 Raoul Wallenberg Lecture‘, University of Michigan.

22 Young, James E., Daniel Libeskind‘s Jewish Museum in Berlin: The Uncanny Arts of Memorial Architecture, In Jewish Social Studies 6.

16

Nature

Where the nature is happening Brockholes visitor center - Adam Khan Architects

Figure 1 View of the Visitor Center form North-East side

The Earth seems to be in serious trouble. Greenhouse effect, air pollution and environmental degradation are all present in the world.

And these conditions will affect all of us sooner or later.

The architects won’t be an exception. Nowadays, everyone is talking about sustainability and low carbon housing.

Standards and regulations appear everywhere and more conditions are needed to be fulfilled. Cities become more crowded and that’s why people start to concentrate on the nature, to preserve it and protect it.

We are trying to find a way to approach the nature, be more in touch with it. In these circumstances new visitor centers in natural reservations are growing all around the England. For instance Cory Environmental Visitor Centre1 and RSPB Environment and Education Centre2 designed by van Heyningen and Haward Architects or Attenborough Nature Reserve Visitor Center3 designed by Groundworks Architects. Another Brockholes Visitor Center was built by Adam Khan architects. All of these buildings rose from

Trusts initiatives. Usually when a natural reserve needs the center for its visitors, they make a competition or they pick an architect to do the job. In the middle of natural reserve you must be aware of what you are doing. Sites were ecologically sensitive and flood risk is most of the times really high.

Architects reacted differently on each of these issues.

For Cory Environmental Visitor Centre becomes most important a drum-shaped Center with promenade for visitors with great view all around the land. The main clue for RSPB Environment and Education Centre was to be carbon neutral, so they used ground-source heat pump to heat the building. Attenborough Nature Reserve Visitor Center was placed on small peninsula of land jutting out into the lake with anti-vandal bridge, which can be removed, when it is not in use.

But for Brockholes proposal became most important, to touch the nature in the middle of the lake, to make the dream of the floating world possible. The vision for the Visitor Center was a cluster of smaller buildings, which

create a village-like shape with different characteristics. This illusion is caused by composing different shapes of roofs.

What it makes even more magical is, that the cluster is really floating on the water surrounded by reeds. This image is taken by Adam Khan from the vernacular villages of the March Arabs.

Brockholes Visitor Center Everything started in July 2007 when The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced a new competition for the Lancashire Wildlife Trust. The brief was to design a visitor center with shop, exhibition spaces, classroom and conference center in the area near Preston city, but it was remarkably open and Adam Khan Architects found that very exciting. Location of beautiful woodland and wetland took big influence of the proposal too. Everything happens at the place where the A59 meets the M6 and crosses the River Ribble.

This location near the highway is really good, because it attracts families, who travel for holidays or visit their grandparents and pass through

Figure 2 Cory Enviromental Visitor Centre

Figure 3 RSPB Environment and Education Centre

Figure 4 Attenborough Nature Reserve Visitor Centre

this place. It is a great possibility to have a break in the Brocholes Natural Reservation, to be in nature for a while and to learn something new about birds and their natural environment.

The architects didn't want to create space for specialists, but a place where ordinary people can come and get inspired and excited. This became very important for the proposal. ''It was so much better than to sit near the highway and just eat, right kids?'' Mom was talking to her children, when I visited the center.

Before 2007, this area was just a place where nature was untouched by humans for a long time. But now, the Brockholes Visitor Centre puts it on the map, where the visitors can see various species of birds in different seasons and habitats. Schools can support their classes of ecology by visiting the place, or the public can just stop for a picnic there.

The Centre enables watching birds from different parts of the lake, Visitor Center or many birdwatchers all around the lake. The position of the building was bravely choosen and at the end it is very well composed because it invites

Friday March 31 2017

Figure 5 Birds in their natural enviroment

Figure 6 View of the Centre from behind the reeds

you to explore and it fills the gap between the wetland and woodland, so you can ''step into the lake''.

With this concept of the floating world the entrance is a little bit hidden. As you approach the place from highway there are a few signs alongside the road and then woodland opens and you can see high-pitched roofs from distance nestle alongside the reeds. This view is so amazing, because it looks almost like an old village with different roof heights. Cluster is there on the water, floating on the pontoon, but the entrance can't be seen. It is oriented on the other side as you arrive. That is why it is architecturally very well composed, the road leads you all round the lake, so you can see the buildings from each side and just after than you finally get inside. Car park is hidden from the center, so it keeps the enviroment down.

To keep this concept to step into the middle of the lake was a challenge and Adam Khan architects took it. ''When we first began thinking about the design, we thought we would have to build a massive raft foundation. That was when

the light bulb came on. If you are building a massive raft foundation, why not build a real raft?''4 They came up with the large concrete pontoon, on which the entire center of the cluster of one-storey buildings are build. It was made by casting concrete around large polystyrene void forms. Four piles embedded in the lake bed are keeping the pontoon anchored in the place. This floating pontoon is connected to the land by bridges, which makes it easy to rise in flood conditions. It is no risk from flooding because Price & Myers structural engineers designed the pontoon to take a live load of 2kN/m2, which is equivalent to 5,000 people to be on the pontoon at one time.

Actually, the visitor center has capacity only for 200 visitors, so it should not sink more than 200 mm if a group of people meet on one corner of the center.

This solution was chosen among the others for a few reasons. The idea of waterlight steel boxes would be too expensive. And steel trusses with the deck on top of it would be three to four meters deep. So at the end,

Figure 7 Plan of natural reservation

17

18

Nature

Figure 8 Section - pontoon

Figure 9 Plan of the Visitor Center 1 Restaurant 2 Kitchen 3 Services 4 Cafe 5 Shop 6 Learning center 7 Exhibition space 8 Conference center

6 8

5

7

4 3

2

Figure 10 Main public space

1

concrete was the most suitable material. To achieve a BREAM ''outstanding'' rating they used low cement content with recycled aggregate.

As you are getting closer and closer, reeds are getting in your view, but it seems as the center was there forever, totally natural with the environment like an old dwelling in the landscape.

Adam Kahn Architects were not interested to build something modern in any way. For them it is far more interesting to play with traditional things that are already in our minds and memories. Visitors don't call it a building but the house, it is closer to their minds. Adam Khan didn't want to design something new and modern but it was inspired by hay barn, because that is what we are used to see what we know by heart. Because it is still there also in cities as well.

Finally you can see the bridges as an entrance to the middle of the lake. There are two bridges, one is heading North and the other one is heading East. First one is short with railing and it leads you right into the floating pontoon.

Second one, completely

without railing, leaves you to explore more views on the Center and leads you walking on the water. Most of the buildings are on the edges of the pontoon but there is one in the middle, which partitiones the space into smaller parts.

Project is playing with small village-like scale, where the pontoon is covered by five lightweight buildings from one half of its area. ''Khan describes the arrangement of the building and spaces as 'an equivalence of enclosed and open rooms,forming a matrix'.''5 There is some kind of fundamental aspect, where in village there is a relationship between the building and the space between. But I had a feeling, when I was there that, every space was more orientated on outdoor spaces inside the cluster. Buildings are taking place, where the nature is happening, so it was more important what is happening outside, than inside. This idea becomes very important for the proposal. Scale of the space is very important and that kind of visibility, where you can get views across one building to another and it plays with differently charged spaces.

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Figure 12 Terrace

Figure 11 Interior

Space and shape is very well thought through. Roof angle is 60 degrees on each side of buildings, which creates different heights of the roofs on every building. The tips of the roofs are chamfered and used as skylights oriented to different directions. As we walk around the buildings we can't really see what is happening on the top of the roof so it makes the shape even more interesting. When you look from distance there are few higher and more dominant spaces, as restaurant and learning center. In the middle of the pontoon there is an exhibition space, which has the biggest dominance with location in the middle of the pontoon, but it doesn't need so much space, so the roof isn't so high. The conference center have the smallest roof, which isn't too important for the natural reservation.

And kitchen is divided to few smaller parts, because it is not the main point of interest for visitors.

In the pontoon there are three main outdoor spaces for customers. The biggest public space facing to the South is covered by small trees, which

Figure 13 View of the Visitor Center form the West bridge

will grow in the future. But the most important part of this space is that it is oriented to the lake, where all kind of birds are flying and swimming, so it interacts with nature around it with specific views of the water or the surroundings. You can just sit there and watch them.

It isn't main part just for this reason, but it is surrounded by restaurant, conference center and exhibition space, which can open their big windows in warm days and create fullvalued space for activities or events.

The terrace of the restaurant connected to the main space is Khan's favorite moment of the floating center.

Here the sun bounces of the water and comes to the oak studs and reflects with doppled kind of sunlight on the orient soffit.6 Outside benches are really simple. They consist just of few squared wooden trunks, which are some kind of warning before a deep water, because railing is not everywhere. There is a part, protected by benches, where you can literally go and touch the water, right there in the middle of the lake, where animals and nature are really

close to you.

Another squared space between the buildings is facing the water too, but its orientation is to the East, where longer bridge is taking place. So as you are approaching from this side, you can see a little bit of the small ''village'', but it did not show you the main part. Here you can also touch the water surrounded by benches.

There is one outside space between the buildings, where you can get from the short bridge, like first invitation to the learning center, surrounded

by Learning center, shop and smaller cafe. This space leads to the smaller narrow ''street'', which is showing visitors by its width, that this space is not intended for them. It is for supply and stuff working there, which is also important for circulation of the building.

Every building is one storey building and their height is all the same. This height around 3 meters makes it friendly to human scale, so you can feel really naturally and it does not disturb natural environment.

Everything is highlighted with used materials. Most of the used material on the exterior is wood. This underlines

connection to the people and friendly look from the outside.

Height of the roofs is dominant in the scale of the building, which created an opportunity for material to make a main expression. Material for the roof could have been picked up on the site but, it would create a big fire hazard, so they have chosen oak shakes. This was the next best natural material.

The architects have taken oak stamps, which would be otherwise a waste material, and have split it with an axe. This creates incredibly textured and ruff peaces. The oak shakes makes a rustic surface and after a few years oak mellows and became what Khan calls ''a lively golden-silvery gray''.7 External cladding is also from wood, its vertical lines remind height of fully grown reeds that will eventualy envelop the building. The eaves carefully separate horizontal lines of oak shakes and horizontal cladding.

Windows were carefully designed to have no frames, so they run from the eaves directly to the floor and some of them are able to open as I mentioned before, so they interior and exterior can be connected

fluently. The architects was thinking about everything.

Even if it rains the gatters will create a little fountains as the water will come down from the roofs.

Inside spaces of the Center have open roof tops, which give the place a glimpse of the magnificence, where you can see the skeleton of the roof.

Open space is created from laminated wooden zig-zag pattern portal frames. Wooden structure is covered by timber structural insulated panel system (SIPS). This technology provides racking resistance to the building and a high level of insulation and airtightness.

The panels were manufactured offsite to make construction time shorter and to not disturb birds on the lake. As the shape of the buildings reminds hey barn and it is a very absorptive space, the structurally insulated panels are covered by acoustic foam made from recycled newspapers, glued and dyed, which makes it the most suitable material for building devoted to sustainability like this one. Foam has deep color and gives the space softness, but the main point was to make in a great acoustic absorber.

The architects also played with glazing to create perfect views and great levels of natural light, which minimize the need for artificial lighting.

Roof shape was designed with skylights, these creates enough sunlight to interior spaces.

In spaces for visitors they are orientated to the East to bring enough warmth in the morning and in the afternoon it keeps lighted but not by direct sunlight. On stuffs spaces skylights are orientated to the North, so it brings enough light for servicing, but it is not overheated by direct sunlight and all the kitchen equipment.

In the sustanaible architecture, there is an essential part of exchanging fresh air in a way that incoming fresh air is exchanging with the outgoing warmer one.

The shape of the roof helps this natural ventilation of the airflow in the building.

This process is like a chimney where the ceilings are open and warmer air rises out of the building through the series of rooflights on the roof ridge.

These roof lights are oriented to the north so the space beneath is not overheated during the warm summer days.

Nature

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Figure 14 Detail of oak shakes

Figure 15 Detail of external cladding

Figure 16 View of the Visitor Center form the West bridge

Group: Ludmila Jankovichova, Katerina Mensikova, Charlie Kistnen, Ajay Mahay, Conor Paul

Copy editors: Ludmila Jankovichova, Katerina Mensikova, Charlie Kistnen, Ajay Mahay, Conor Paul

Publishers: Ludmila Jankovichova, Katerina Mensikova

Lead author (introduction):Conor Paul

Editor: Ludmila Jankovichova

Graphic designer: Ludmila Jankovichova, Katerina Mensikova

Cover Designer: Ludmila Jankovichova Printer: Ludmila Jankovichova

This natural ventilation system is placed in almost every room of the visitor center and it can be increased manually by opening the sliding 2 m height windows in summer. In winter, there are small vents beneath the windows, which allows fresh air to enter the rooms. These can be controlled by a building management system (BMS).

Hareth Pochee also introduces 'a night cooling strategy', which says the building has such effective insulation that you can flush the rooms with cool morning air.

The building interacts with its occupants by 'iPod controls', which are controlling heating in the building. This works quite well and house lords can monitor temperatures which are comfortable for the visitors. However, the amount of the burnt biomass is higher than they expected.8 This system and materials helped Brockholes visitor center to win several competitions and three RIBA awards including 'North West building of the year' as well as the building was awarded by the new BREAM Outstanding rating for sustainability. But the Brockholes Visitor Center

is not just about winning prices, but it is a great building as it sits besides the nature. As the judges of The Wood Awards said ''Putting the buildings on pontoons has allowed the designers to produce the effect of the building being on the water. The external cladding looks, from a distance, very similar to reeds so, in time, the building will merge into the background.''9 Based on my own visitor experience I can say, that Visitor Center is really at the right place where the nature is happening.

The Visitor Center works for visitors as well and it adapts to needs of its visitors.

For example the Center has its usual components as shop, restaurant, gallery, but the most important point seems to be a conference center.

This was actually not their intention but later it showed the adaptability, which Khan is talking about. ''This sense of a building able to transcend its original function through the adaptation of its accretion of spaces, is attractive.''10 Not just functions of spaces has changed, but also outside cladding is getting older. Its color is now gray and it looks

better than ever. Floating on the lake reminds us something what we know, something familiar arranged by unfamiliar way. It fits to the landscape with no noubt, sitting alongside the reeds. It is a great pleace to spend time in nature. I wish there would be more places like this one and more architects like Adam Khan.

I hereby declare that, I have consulted, and understand, the information provided in the University of Brighton’s Plagiarism Awareness Pack and the information on academic standards and conventions for referencing given in the module directive.

I know that plagiarism means passing off someone else’s writings or ideas as if they were my own, whether deliberately or

inadvertently. I understand that doing so constitutes academic misconduct and may lead to exclusion from the University.

I have therefore taken every care in the work submitted here to accurately reference all writings and ideas that are not my own, whether from printed, online, or other sources.

Ludmila Jankovichova

Ludmila Jankovichova Footnotes 1 Waite, Richard. ‘vHH completes another nature reserve scheme’, in Architect’s journal, Oct 02, 2012 2 Slavid, Ruth. ‘RIBA Awards’, in Architect’s journal, vol. 225, no. 25, 2007 June 28 p. 25-91 3 Anonymous. ‘RIBA Awards’, in Architects’ journal, vol. 223, no. 24, 2006 June 22, p. 27-86 4 Kennett, Stephen. ‘Tread Lightly’, in Building, vol. 275, no. 8642 (32), 2010 August 13 p. 42-45 5 Roberts, Diminic. ‘Floating signifier’, in Architecture today, no. 221, 2011 September, p. 56 6 Brockholes Visitor Centre. In: Youtube [online]. 22. 11. 2011 [cit. 2017-0312]. Form: https://youtu.be/DReSugHJL3o.

Channel of user: Creative Media Design.

7 Martin, Spring. ‘Solutions: Roofing’, in Building Design, no. 1896, 2009 December 11, p. 16-17 8 Pearson, Andy. ‘Wet, Wild & Wonderful’, in CIBSE Journal, vol.4, no.9, 2012 September, p. 33-34 9 Anonymous. ‘Winner, The wood awards’, in Building Design, Supplement, 2011 September, p. 8-9 10 Roberts, Diminic. ‘Floating signifier’, in Architecture today, no. 221, 2011 September, p.55

Katerina Mensikova Charlie Kistnen Ajay Mahay Conor Paul