Ruined Fields: Vernacular Futures of Decay

RUINED FIELDS Of Decay

This thesis book was produced in the context of Professor Marcel Sanchez Prieto’s seminar and studio 204B 2021-2022, in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Master of Architecture degree at the University of California, Berkeley.

Advisors: Marcel Sanchez Prieto Maria Paz Gutierrez Stathis Yeros

Copyright 2022

Ruined Fields asks to what extent can the intrinsic value of vernacular architecture be revealed through its continuous evolution beyond its ruinous states?

Current discussions of ruination in architecture have centered on how structures fit into an idealized Western definition of value. Buildings that lie outside of these values promoted through colonization and erasure in the name of progress are then labeled decrepit and excluded from further investigation. This thesis looks into the processes surrounding ruination within cities; those aspects of structures within a city amassing manual and natural decay, separate from their inherent or perceived cultural value. How can designers be inclusive of the processes of decay as a way to facilitate colloquial interpolation within our buildings? We must think beyond our transient occupation of these structures, and begin to acknowledge the informal activities by the disadvantaged and marginalized in communities that are often overlooked. Ruins can be utilized as a lens that expands the current scope of architecture, underlining the informal changes while enabling local participation.

RUINED FIELDS :

Vernacular Futures Of Decay

This thesis focuses on an instance of ruination in Juarez, Mexico. Informal interventions have made the city of Juarez a model for how designers can begin to think of ruination as part of the design process. Going beyond the introductory investigation into the defunct agricultural school of Escuela Superior de Agricultura Hermanos Escobar, this thesis begins to reimagine the school through the lens of its ruination. In order to contextualize the ruination, the school is reimagined through a parallel narrative where ruination was considered from the onset of its design. This reimagines the ideals put forth by preservation + adaptive reuse as a starting point rather than an end point. Sites like this show the vibrancy of urban ruins, still giving opportunity for the local communities during and after their decay. In order to further sustain these spaces utilized by the communities, a more cohesive approach must be made to allow for development, while incorporating the importance of evolutions within culture.

In order to align with current scopes of research, Ruined Fields sought examples in which the boundaries of a structure’s lifetime are pushed indefinitely. This booklet is divided into three parts: the first establishing these introductory examples; second situating grievances into the current attitudes of preservation and architecture; third the possibilities of growth through the scope of the agricultural school.

part i investigations

“Crucially, all ruins are ruins of something: a ruin is tangible proof of something missing. Moreover, the eventuality of ruin is knitted into the very being of every building.” - Jason Rhys Perry. Ruinology. 2019.

Jason Rhys Perry’s investigations into the continual use of ruins in Southeast Asia by nonhumans highlights the afterlife of our structures. By incorporating post-human inhabitation into our building’s original plans, a true awareness of their lifespan is incorporated.

“The carpets, furniture and pictures are a distraction from the building itself, while in the ruin the harsh architectural reality is thrust upon us.” - M. W. Thompson, Ruins: Their Preservation and Display

Gordon Mata-Clark (edited image to the right) famously upended the meanings of demolition in order to reveal the resiliency and inherent spaces lying within the destruction. Through this destruction the hidden forms of the structures is revealed, giving a drastically different idea of spaces.

“If we assume a new attitude toward preservation, then we need a new attitude toward demolition... preservation has almost no idea how to negotiate the coexistence of radical change and radical stasis that is our future.” - Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas has substantially talked about his dismay with the preservationist movement throughout the world, warning against the radical stasis it is calling for. Freezing our buildings in the so-called period of significance pushes them toward disuse and a reality of perpetual ruination.

Grievances seeks to show the dismay in both architectural practice and historic preservation. The ideals posed by both have limited their outlook onto the lifespans of buildings. Programs beyond what was originally dictated are shunned and collected as vulgarities. This thinking should be cast aside and incorporation of all kinds of usages, by all kinds of users considered as part of the changing landscapes of structures.

part ii grievances

There is an inconsistency within the architectural canon of the perceived lifetime for our built environment. Classical architecture became the measure by which we’d judge what constitutes as valuable towards preservation. Modernism became the antithesis to this, yet remained on equal footing by misaligning the ideals of architecture back onto a sole mover. Our architectural heritage has been split into two lifetimes, one transient, and the other inconsistently eternal.

This false dichotomy of lifetimes perpetuates a narrative of erasure and discreditation. Our cities are built out of the commons, ever changing and elastic. The Westernized ideals for preservation have altered this landscape. Ruins are deemed significant for structures of Western cultural value and ideals, while dilapidation absorbs the rest of the city. Advocating for the sole conservation of structures satisfying a colonizational litany strangles a more accurate conversation towards the architectural canon.

Lying within the problem of Westernized architectural canon is the very definition of Ruins. The act of designating ruinous a piece of architecture terminates its forward movement towards an ever changing evolution. Stagnation becomes its death. Here lies a deficit in its categorization.

Ruins then become more of a ruinous state once preserved, dismantling any possibilities for retribution. These structures disallow further contextualization toward a changing city, stagnating in their momentous period. Additive evolution is what has driven the urban landscape, while instances of preservation immobilize cultural shifts.

Through the application of preservationist’s interventions, vernacular structures dematerialize into objects rather than true living places. This leads to an unavailing stasis of the built heritage cities offer. Preservation, as Rem Koolhaas has described “has almost no idea how to negotiate the coexistence of radical change and radical stasis that is our future.”

There is a contradiction between the preservation of a city and it becoming a prisoner to its own history. The dilemmas of preservation have set an off-limits area of the city, those frozen in time for preservation of ideal architectures. While those ‘inferior’ architectures are subjugated into extermination.

The sites that make up the majority of the city are arraigned within the architectural criteria, yet find no comfort within the preservationist ideals. There is a misappropriation of information within these forgotten landscapes. Gathered through weathering, climactic change, and vernacular interventions, these ecologies hold histories and data that can be utilized to better interpret extant situations.

A new kind of information must be extracted from vernacular sites. Deeper investigations outside of the structural integrities of a structure allows to be able to contextualize the true reasoning for its ruination. Rather than utilizing dissipated interpretations to give value to colloquial sites, the sites should begin to inform how to proceed.

These sites have the ability to better explain the ruination process happening locally. With their validation, these new vernaculars will allow emerged ecologies to evolve away from the Western Ruin.

Futures poses answers to the questions raised in the previous sections towards a defunct agricultural school building in Juarez, Mexico. Incorporation of a ruin framework allows for distinct methods of approach in colloquial contexts. Allowing vernacular interventions to take place extends the lifespan of our buildings, but more importantly, rallies them toward a more relevant future. Escuela Superior de Agricultura Hermanos Escobar brings with it a contentious colonial history. Through its natural decay, the layers of history are shown through the materiality, subjugating local interpretations of what is important and what is to be shed. When decay becomes a new method of practice, these layers are more readily delaminated, giving future generations space for catharsis.

Decay within the city needs to be extended to become a generator of space. Urban decay in communities like Juarez often take advantage of the states of decay, looking for resources, and even reutilizing ruins towards new activities. A layering methodology must be employed in order to live in congruency with the ruination.

Allowing for distinct parts of our buildings to decay beyond repair, a new framework is created for local intervention. This gives the opportunity for new ideas to be cemented into the urban fabric, constituting their own sensibilities of their time. Rather than solely working with issues of the building’s onset, ruination gives the opportunity to reinterpret space as a generator of social policy.

At times spaces will divulge in totality towards ruination, and for these moments an acceleration of decay is necessary. Incorporating elements into our building design that would traditionally be considered detrimental in the preservation of a space, now allow flexibility for future interventions.

Cataloging the longevity of materials gives limited ideas to what these materials are able to do besides their primary function. By incorporating competing lifespans, i.e. those lifespans that might hinder or decay further materials, then a more dynamic approach to design can be achieved. Encasing steel rebar at the onset of design within adobe walls enlarges the opportunity for fracture within the adobe, effectively decaying the wall more quickly. This idea of programmed decay gives the opportunity for interventions led by its vernacular context.

The decay process then has an exponential effect. Controlling the decay as a way to reclaim material, as is often done in these urban vernacular contexts, extends the intended use of the building. In this phase of a building’s lifespan, usages not often associated with the architect’s duties are then brought into our purview. Non-traditional usages can be planned for through decay, giving a broader use to the urban fabric.

The remnants of the decay begin a new framework for development. Concrete plinths, steel rebar, and brick columns survive as both an ode to the past, and as a base for new construction. Particular elements that are of importance to the citizenry of the time are allowed to be preserved in the traditional values of historic preservation, yet yield their totality of stagnation.

Construction over the elements left through ruin respect the preservationist sensibilities as a layering of histories, never succumbing to a singular narrative. Rather, buildings are then reflective of the changing typologies of its context. Ruination is an opportunity for buildings to become local reflections of social and design movements within a singular building.

Spatial changes to the floorplan as part of its ruination aids in reconfiguration through the building’s lifespan. Spanish colonial ideals found at the Escuela Superior de Agricultura Hermanos Escobar give a sense of place for those part of the higher classes allowed to study at the school, while its courtyard is introspective in the context.

The ruin process then allows for this courtyard to be opened for community usage, long after its original program delays this process. The passage of time deconstructs the original intent of separation, while retaining the ideals to be preserved.

Careful considerations to reprogram the school then allows for spatial design to lead in ways that the school might evolve into a more outwardly driven space. Considering the reconstruction of certain cultural elements such as the corner condition that drove the original spanish colonial narrative, can then be reactivated as an opportunity for community bridging through its total decay.

Assessment beyond preservation and adaptive reuse can then bring a wider narrative to what the building might become. Cyclical typologies often found in the urban fabric can be considered as part of the natural order of a structure’s lifespan. These typologies then inform both aesthetic and spatial properties for the site. Decay here is informed through the reclamation cycles found in Juarez, due to security issues, political pressures, or neighborhood shifts.

Architectural elements are more easily reconsidered through decay processes. Here an adobe wall decayed through the insertion of steel rebar bridges two previously disconnected spaces. By imagining these spaces to be retrofitted, a new urban typology is created, giving greater agency to local interventions.

Even elements like a window can be reclaimed as passageways or sitting areas once ruination is allowed to become part of the design process. The ideas given through decay are not ones of totality, rather of selective release of design gestalt. The reclamation of materials and space are highlighted through the ruination of the original design.

First interpreted as a conceptual model showing the differing stages of adobe construction, this model foments the capacity to consistently live within ruination, while maintaining preservation and adaptive reuse techniques prevalent.

ruin totality

generational historical retention material reclamation

Mitigation attempts toward ruin and decay have stagnated the perceptions of historic preservation and reuse within drastically changing cities. Allowing structures to decay is a natural eventuality all parts succumb to. Yet by further instigating this decay, purposeful reuse can be achieved more readily, allowing growth and participation from the communities surrounding these areas of current blight.

retention

layered material visibility

spatial adaptability

material decay as space generator

ruin contingency

material addition as space generator

Living with decay allows for a more accurate grasp of what naturally occurs without the involvement of the architect. By giving a place of discourse, ruination can become a space generator at the hands of both designers and non-designers. Rather than formulating the narratives proposed by historic preservation where spaces are stagnated, ruins are able to evolve along with the city. And in contrast with adaptive reuse, the reprogramming comes at the onset of a design, not only after it has yielded to its decay.

to many more wonderful conversations and cathartic moments

Tya Abe Collin Brampton

Leander Brotz Cutts Kwon Angelo Razo Marilyn Reyes