S p at i a l ta p e s t r i e s Lukas Fetzko
Critical Written Reflection Arkitektskolen Aarhus Spring 2018
*
Contents
Notes pg 21
Individual Realization
08
pg 19
Nesting{ An Act of Humanity
07
pg 17
III :r e t u r
Aggregation of Experiences
n
pg 15
06
pg 13
05
Unknown Expectations + Outcomes
I: D ep arture
Preface + Introduction pg 03
A Continuum of Human Activity
01
pg 05
02 pg 07
A Person on a Mission
II : I nit i at ion
pg 09
03 Shapers of a Human Condition
pg 11
04
Intersections of the (un)Known
P r e fa c e Over the course of my three and one-half (almost four!) years as an Architecture student I have developed, both known and unknown to myself at the time, a series of questions and opinions on Architecture which I hope to pose, attempt to answer, or elaborate upon. As I officially enter my MArch this upcoming fall (2018), the ideas I have been considering will become even more relevant and formative as I begin to develop potential theses. This Critical Written Reflection will jump between personal anecdotes, existing narrative, and theory. While this may seem hectic organizationally, this is reflecting the dispositions expressed in the text, where our ideas and experiences often come about serendipitously and without prior planning. My goal is for the reader to begin to think spontaneausly and see the connections that arise between seemingly disconnected situations.
Spatial Tapestries is written in the style of a narrative. Using inspiration from Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”, or “Monomyth”, the information, findings, revelations, etc. are presented in an intentional sequence, with specific relations between what is preceding and what follows each part. This idea of the narrative and the journey is coupled with the idea of a tapestry, a long rug, banner, or piece of fabirc which chronicles important events or stories, and something which may continunally be added to. This Critical Written Reflection aims to be the first step in approaching these topics which interest me. I hope to utilize both academic studio projects as well as outside inspiration and internal theory to articulate my intentions and draw links between existing theory, projects, and designers to reinforce these ideas. This Critical Written Reflection will utilize both text, hopefully in a conscise manner, as well as visuals and graphics in order to clearly present these ideas to the reader, and while this document will be created digitally, it will be formatted for printing purposes; as I feel consuming media and documents physically, even if just a piece of paper, allows the reader a deeper engagement with the content.
m o n o ~
m y t H
The Monomyth or “Hero’s Journey” is a form of narrative which centers on a protagonist who, though a series of decisions and trials, goes on a journey and returns to where they began, having changed in the process.
introduction This Critical Written Reflection will focus on the ability for architecture to help us develop as individuals. Our own experiences – memories, morals, aspirations, etc. – are all shaped by the environements we inhabit. While this may seem very obvious there is an aspect of this which seems lacking in much of contemporary design. What I’m referring to is the history of the place; not merely what happened around it, or to it, but the experiences of the people who inhabit it. The story of a place, the mythology of a place. The role of history, both in terms of how it changes and how it preserves, will also be a focus. How spaces collect experiences, allow those expereiences to shape the Architecture, and then have new experiences occur within these spaces is the broad theme of this Critical Written Reflection.
Growing up I had moved several times until primary school where my single mother finally purchased a home for my twin sister and I. Both the temporary places we lived before and the place we decided to make permanent had serious impacts on my own experiences and development in both an architectural and social sense. From the clearing in the woods behind our Fulton, NY apartment, with old furniture and mattresses, coverered in dirt and the occasional centipede, surrounded by trees, but with a surprising sensation of interiority; to our Victorian “Painted Lady” in Earville, NY, where we settled down. Always in a state of some sort of repair, but host to many family gatherings and with a sense of home, familarity and intamacy which most new construction can’t seem to recreate. These memories are mundane to a degree, but no less impactful, because they happened to me, they have all gathered and built up to my current self. They are my journey, my “monomyth”. This document will specifically look at these ideas and more through “thresholds”, and their ability to initiate change, act as a divider, and be an inhabitable space. An academic project will be utilized to articulate this idea of the “Inhabitable Threshold”. A “Proximate” Nest, which utilizes the threshold to perform a variety of spatial and conceptual tasks within a small built work. Outside writings, theories, and projects will be used to help strengthen my arguements by providing both written and visual support.
“Atmosphere emphasizes a sustained being in a situation, rather than a singular moment of perception; atmosphere is always a continuum.� I
fig. 1
I: Departure
01: A continuum of human activity /the world as it is /the corridor
Humanity has always been active. Whether it is over short or long distances; in mental spaces, making, thinking, and so on. We are always in motion. Always acting and reacting. Therefore our architecture does not exist for a single event or situation, it may be intended to intially, but history moves on. People, places, and ideas change. Sensations and experiences can last, or at least be conveyed by an Architecture, much longer. This becomes a tapestry – A long record of events, ever changing, never truly finished, with each new stitch the meaning of the whole can change.
~
Friday, 17:00 – wait make that 18:00 – because my mother is always late. We pack into the car, my sister and I argue about who gets to sit in the front, and nag our mother that again, we are leaving too late to be on time. We are heading to Rochester, NY from our home in Earlville, NY; a 2.5 hour drive each way with a stop in the middle in Syracuse to switch to my father’s car to finish the journey. Every two weeks, the same route, same time, often running late. Earlville to Syracuse goes through small towns, up and down rolling hills in and around the valleys of Central New York. The old farmhouses, buffered from each other by woods, or cropland, or pasture has it’s own rhythm. The houses, and barns, and sheds; in various states of repair and disrepair; have their own character. I can see them for just a moment. Just a glimpse and then I need to figure out what is different – new windows? fresh coat of paint? further neglect? – or perhaps nothing has changed. Maybe I have changed. Something new has revealed itself to me. I have a second in reality and the rest of the ride in my imagination. Imagining these rural locales. My space in the car, so small and controlled in stark contrast with landscape of my journey; so organic and choatic; snow, or rain, or sunshine.
~
This is the exisitng condition of the world of our Architectural Hero. So much for them to consume, but so little time to remain anywhere for too long. This means that the continual changes occuring in the world around them must be addressed, must be dealt with in their Architecture. The world is a corridor, with twists and turns they may not see or anticipate. They can stop in some of the adjoining rooms, or write on the walls, but they cannot linger. And over time these remnants will be joined by those of other Heroes, on their own journeys.
We are always on a mission; often we don’t even realize we are until it has already begun. There is a lack of curiosity and exploration in Architecture. How do you make a space feel new or unknown or exciting? How do you create a space people want to explore for themselves, in their own way? We must cross the threshold into unfamiliarity. But what is a “threshold”? of course there is the obivous definition, something that separates rooms, or inside and outside, or programs. But it can have far greater implications than that. The threshold can become a space of its own. A space which can serve a very specific purpose in regards to the space you are leaving, and the one you mean to enter.
~
An aggregation of bright brown wood tiles, in contrast with the dark gray concrete walls, already draws you towards it. From certain angles, it appears impenetrable, but you find the opening. You enter, but the repetition of the tiles begins to distort the space and disorient you, but you come to a larger chamber, the tiles are the most dense here and you feel this is a good space to stop for a time, maybe even just a second or two. Again you continue; you see a door to the outside, you walk towards it and the tiles get closer around you, nearly fitting the profile of your body. You get to the door and go through. The outside of the factory building is before you, seeming much more expansive after that enclosed procession. But now you think. What exactly was I experiencing? Is it a new room, situated inside of an exisitng one? Or was that ordeal the door, an extention of it, an elongation of it. The aggragation, a “nest” is a threshold to the inside of the building and the outside of it. What would normally take seconds, opening a door and going through, now takes noticebly longer.
~
The Architectural Hero must break out of the exisitng world of merely observing and pondering. They are still active, in motion, but they now need to cross the threshold, to engage where they are and where they want to be. The treshold is what assists the Architectural Hero in this endeavor. It becomes a space in and of itself instead of merely a “/”. This is the point where the experiences of the Hero, which they take with them through the threshold, enters the world of the experiences of others which exists across the threshold. The two will begin to mix and change each other; and both the Hero and the space will change.
02: a person on a mission /call to adventure /crossing the 1st threshold
fig. 2
“The feeling that I am not being directed but can stroll at will - just drifting along you know? And it’s a kind of voyage of discovery.” II
II: initiation
“Patterns need not simply communicate identity, they can actively perform and produce it.� III
03: Shapers of a human condition
We are both shaped and being shaped by our environments and experiences, whether they are active or static. This results in a constant interplay between what is within and outside our control; shifitng from actor to reactor. These environments are merely the spaces which have formed based on the experiences of others before you have been there. Sure, there is a techtonic aspect, but what people have done and experienced in these spaces gives it purpose, history, and significance which one becomes influenced by. This feedback is crucial. What the Architecture and space tells
/the road of trials
the inhabitant, what it doesn’t tell, what it wants someone to
/moving through the space of collected experiences
spatial level.
figure out for themselves which challenges the inhabitant on a
~
Nesting Balasana immediately tells you about itself: “I am wood” “I sit on the site in a certain way” “Light hits me in this way and that” “I am prorous and solid” “I am inviitng you to figure out the rest” Its identity is as much about what it tells you as mush as what it doesn’t. Even if these parameters all stay constant – which is impossible – they do not specify the function of that space at a given moment. The initial intention, a procession to enable introspective and contemplative thought, becomes lost very quickly in between inhabitants. The user becomes more and more important as the spaces ages. It continues to keep a record of the happenings in and around it. How will it show this history?
~
The Architectural Hero has crossed the threshold. They are in a new environment. They face a “road of trials” ahead of them where they will be challenged and tested. Their dispositions weighed against the spaces unfolding before them, made up of the plethora experiences of others. This is a forest, a field, a wall, a pit. This is the initiation of the Hero. They must take what they brought through the threshold and use it to help in navigating these new spaces, to sort out what they will take and leave behind. Changing the fabric of the spaces and situations they encounter; nothing the same as it was when they arrived.
Choice is often percieved as a threshold between what is known and what is unknown, and while the specifics of every decision cannot be totally accounted for – even what is “unknown” can lie within a realm of familiarity which can make it easier to grasp – only through interpreting what is unknown through what is known can one become familiar with a new situation. Architectually this is a boundary, threshold, or screen. Interacting with it inevitably leads to a reaction. Architecture must address the action it is involved with – inside/outside, singular/collective, mental/physical, action/stasis.
~
I walk with my party, 4 of us in total, through the carved tunnel
04: intersections of the (un)known /meeting with the goddess /the center of the labyrinth
in the side of the mountain. We come to an intersection and what do we find sitting there, a sphinx! We try to approach but there is an invisible barrier between us. The sphinx speaks and tells us that there are three paths for us to take, each one leads to a goal or desire of one of the party members. We choose one and the sphinx declares we must answer her riddle in order to pass through. She speaks it and we ponder for some time. We give her an answer, it is correct! She allows us to pass through the barrier to our desired path. We feel confident as a whole, but I can’t shake the feeling that something sinsiter is afoot. What lies down the other paths? Or do they even exist? Are these all tricks of the mountain. We were never in control with the sphinx, she could be lying, or she could be rearranging the rooms as we move through them. All I know we can do is just move forward and try to get to the center of this forsaken place.
~
The Architectural Hero has undergone many trials. They are at the final test. The labyrinth, the climax, the meeting with the goddess. The turning point where the Hero will be more different than the same from their past self. They get to the center and there it is, the goal, the goddess, beautiful and inspirational. But she doesn’t give the Hero answers, only questions. Was this really the goal? Are they at the end or the center? Is the labyrinth just a threshold where they enter and exit through the same opening? Have they left one space and entered a completely different one? The Architectural Hero discovers that the spaces they experience are not static, they are evolving both because of them and without their interference. Was the goddess waiting for them? Or is she indifferent?
fig. 3
“Choice is inevitably a predetermined indeterminacy.� IV
The intersections of the known/unknown leads to many outcomes and often the most significant are those which are unexpected, serendipitous, or epiphanous. Celebrate the odd and obscure things. The very specific and seemingly unimportant. They can have profound effects on design because we are drawn to the random, the specific, the periphery, the outlying – often unconsciously. The minutiae, the events outside of our control or intentions, the natural processes, all that we cannot change
05: unknown expectaions + outcomes
at will, we must only react to. These changes and transitions and processes are unavoidable, so Architecture must be able to either evolve with these changes, or be open enough to allow change to occur within/around it.
~
The drive is nearly an hour from my apartment in Buffalo. A gloomy, drizzly, mild February morning; the nearly foot of snow slowly dissolving as the water gently sprays against my windshield as my wipers, which need to be replaced, struggle to keep the glass clear of dirt and mist. I arrive at my destination, Zoar Valley; it sounds so mythic, so ancient, and the mist and fog which has gathered starts to prove that claim. I park my car and it is quiet, no one can be seen, but remnants of activity remain – footprints and ski tracks. But I am unable to determine just how long they have been there. An hour? A day? A week? None of it matters because the drizzle continues to slowly erase these marks in the snow. I continue my trek, following what I believe to be trails, based mostly off of these desintgrating tracks. I mostly follow my own desires, things which catch my eye, a grove of tall slender pines; a partially frozen pond surrounded by fallen timber; Seeming to be intentionally framed by the forest. I continue to stumble upon these moments through my hike, a view of the gorge, a section of huge old growth trees, seeming ancient shrouded in fog and mist. I am only reacting to my environment, letting it reveal itself to me – simply walking.
~
Having left the goddess the Architectural Hero has recieved their boon. It is not what they expected to recieve, and at first they are reluctant to accept this gift. They continue onward, unsure of how to decipher this new insight. They understand that they just need to react. They had gotten to what they thought was the end, but the journey is still not over. They are now in uncharted territory, they have no maps or guides to help them, but they continue nonetheless.
/the boon is recieved /a new chamber is revealed
“The map had been the first form of misdirection, for what is a map but a way of emphasizing some things and making other things invisible?� V
III: Return
“A pattern, in fact, is definable as an aggregate of events of objects� VI
06: aggregation of experiences
Aggregations are specific; they equate to certain criteria. These aggregations can be physical materials, physical spaces, mental spaces, experiences, and more. Aggregations are collections, therefore temporality is unavoidable – do you hide history or celebrate it? Architecture mediates the past, present, and future. It is both a threshold, a solid division, and a porous membrane – which itself has its own thickness, its own inhabitability. It can be heavy or light, thick or thin, invisible or unavoidable. Any
/transformation of the hero
Architecture is a space for events to transpire (events being in extremely broad terms). Even Architecture designed for one event will be experienced differently by different people
/building the wall
at different times. Architecture needs to be prepared for the histories, memories, and experiences unfolding in and around it.
~
Both conceptually and physically Nesting Balasana is an aggregate. From the movements of the yoga pose (which served as a thematic base) to the tiles that make up the nest. Additionally, the spaceis loose enough to allow the inhabitant to specify their own events. These spatial qualities were accomplished through the tiling which allowed multiple perceptions of “boundary”. From outside, mass/heavy/ solid; from inside, shell/light/porous. Perspective is key in understanding the capabilites and qualities of aggregations.
~
The Architectural Hero is still walking; in a foreign, unfamiliar, frightening place. All they see around them is rubble, ruins, pieces of something that was here before them, now changed, distorted, no longer serving its original purpose, but pieces of it do remain. What else can the Hero do but build? They go, piece by piece stacking, turning, fitting each piece into the next, uncertain of the original construction but indifferent to it. All their focus on this new construction.
fig. 4
Nests are made of aggregations. Nesting becomes the way we both define a space and contain our experiences. A place to collect experiences. Nests are personal, but they are not devoid of, or immune to, outside influences. Nesting does not need to be a static space. These spaces need to be built – test them; fail, succeed; change them. Otherwise they will not only not exist, they will fail to have any impact.
~
January is often a cold and snowy month in New York State, and this one was no different. My troop and I, about 12 of us, have gotten to our camp, 2 “lean-tos” each with 4 bunk beds and a fireplace, located on the open face of the three-sided structure. After our dinner, cooked in a dutch oven, the “lean-tos” are filled with a pleasant warmth and smell that cuts through the frigid night air; the fire providing a barrier between the “outside” and the “inside”. As I lie in my sleeping bag, wrapped in layers of thermal material, only my face exposed, the outside seems to disappear. I can hear and see the breath of myself and my fellow scouts as it crystalizes in the winter air, yet none of them seem to notice. We feel at home, in a safe place, despite there only being three uninsulated walls, and with the snow falling and wind blowing outside, none of it matters. We are nested. The next morning when I awake, everything is different. That familiarity, that comfort has gone as soon as my eyes open. My body is stiff. My hands don’t feel asleep, they don’t even feel like my hands. I need to use the other to loosen the stiff joints. My face, covered in frost; but the rest of my boody, nearly sweating. I procrastinate getting out of my bed, changing in my sleeping bag – no easy task – and getting ready for the day.
~
The wall has been built; the rubble cleaned up and repurposed. The Architectural Hero crosses the wall, and therefore the second threshold, the return threshold. The Hero is back into their familiar world, but everything looks different. The world they had just left has changed their perspective. They cannot spend the time though, worrying about what to make of the new/old world, they are tired, and need to rest. They start to gather, forage around their surroundings for something to build with. They construct a nest, out of the old and the new; things they brought with them and took along the way. They try to create a space to feel the same again, but everything feels a bit off.
07: nesting { an act of humanity /crossing the return threshold /making the nest
fig. 5
“The proof of the pudding is found in the eating” VII
We come to our own conclusions. They are made through our own experiences; but even our own experiences are influenced by the experiences of those around and before us – from the tapestry which defines our environments. The realizations and conclusions on the part of the individual contribute to the interactions of the collective. All of these experiences build up and aggregate into new spaces which carry these memories for individuals in the future. These memories are crucial. How does Architecture create an impact upon the inhabitant and vice versa? How do the qualities of the architecture form organic moments of nostalgia, epiphany, or reflection?
My Conclusion:
~
08: individual realization + collective implications /master of 2 worlds /back home
Architecture is human – created by and for humanity, but bigger than any one person or people. It is not beholden to a time or place, but rather to time and place. The motives
of creators will fade, but what is built will remain. How will it change, how will it still be human – Architecture must be allowed to evolve in some way, which forces future inhabitants to discover its new intentions. It collects the events and experiences happening around/within/outside it and creates a new space. One which is always changing in some ways, but constant in others. Where both inhabitant and space must make decisions, take action, and then react to those actions. One is never “static” (at least completely or holisitcally, even if one is mentally or physically static) but rather actively involved in the space they are playing a small (or large) part in evolving.
~
The Architectural Hero awakens from their nest. As they continue on the road home their world slowly comes back into focus. They can see now. The world they left, merging with the one they crossed through, merging with the one they returned to. Everything different/familiar, old/new. The Architectural Hero can see this, sort it out. They are not merely looking from a distance; they have approached, examined, learned, changed, and stepped back, seeing a new creation before them, but now they are done, moving on to the next space, the next experience. They are the master of 2 worlds; adding to the spatial tapestry.
fig. 6
“And perhaps one of the buildings will come back to them 25 years later, involuntarily, and they’ll remember a corner, a street, a square – with no thought for its architect” VIII
notes * Bayeux Tapestry, 11th Century , documenting the Norman conquest of England, ~70m long I : Borch, Christian, and Gernot Böhme. “Architectural Atmospheres: On the Experience and Politics of Architecture”. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2014.
II, VII, VIII : Zumthor, Peter. “Atmospheres: Architectural Environments: Surrounding Objects”.
Basel: Birkhäuser, 2006.
III, VI : Anderson, Paul, and David Salomon. “Principles and Primitives.” In The Architecture of
Patterns, 41-63. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010.
IV : Diller + Scofidio, “Indigestion”, 1995. V : VanderMeer, Jeff. “Annihilation”. London: Fourth Estate, 2015. fig. 1 : Fetzko, Lukas. “The Corridor”. Collage. 2018. fig. 2 : Trempe, Robert, Jr. Photograph of exterior view of “Nesting Balasana”. 2018. fig. 3 : Fetzko, Lukas. “The Meeting With the Goddess”. Collage. 2018. fig. 4 : Trempe, Robert, Jr. Photograph of close up view of “Nesting Balasana”. 2018. fig. 5 : Fetzko, Lukas. “View Through Train Tunnel”. Photograph. 2018. fig. 6 : Fetzko, Lukas. “Master of 2 Worlds/Back Home”. Collage. 2018. Other Sources and Inspirations: Campbell, Joseph. “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. Hickman, Jonathan, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, and Rus Wooton. “East of West”. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics, 2015.
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