the RÜGEN INSTITUTE for the CONSERVATION of SOUND An architectural proposal for the transformation of the KDF Seebad, PRORA.
MATHIAS SKAFTE ANDERSEN UNIT 2+3D AL! A Laboratory AAA - 6th Semester - S14
PROGRAM THE RÜGEN INSTITUTE FOR THE CONSERVATION OF SOUND
* TO RÜGEN The rural landscape of the German island of Rügen was immortalized by the artist Caspar David Friedrich in the early 1800’s. His paintings depict both the brutal mist covered cliffs towards the sea, the field covered flatlands and the wetlands around the lakes of the island. Since, the landscape seems to have be preserved as it was in the time of Friedrich - rich with wildlife and forestation disrupted only by the odd field or small town. At least this was the situation until the 1930’s when the construction of the KDF Seebad resort, Prora commenced. Parallel to the east coast towards the Ostsee a narrow concrete structure stretches for four kilometres. Meant at the time as a vacation resort for the working class of National Socialist Germany, today the building stands as an abandoned symbol of a past that is rather forgotten than remembered by the Germans. The complex
consists of eight identical buildings, each divided into a number of west-facing courtyards and a full view of the sea from the rooms that all face east. Prora was designed by German architect Clemens Klotz, but with the outbreak of the Second World War it was never finished. During the Cold War it has been used by American paratroopers as training grounds and Soviets as barracks; meaning that parts of the complex stand as complete ruins today, whereas others have been slightly restored during the second half of the 1900’s. The complex can be reached from the north or the south via roads or the railway leading from Bergen around the Kleiner Jarsmunder lake. The roads align themselves parallel to the complex and are flanked on either side by woods that can be penetrated only at defined access points. From the road, neither the lake to the west or the building to the east can be seen – the forest obstructing and creating one point perspectives to the north and south. Upon reaching Prora, the road is hid
by the forest just penetrated, and the landscape, beach and sea on the eastern side of the complex is unable to be seen until one has found himself in one of the top floor rooms. To access the beach, one must exit the building, walk around it and through the forest. From the beach, again, the complex is obscured by forest. The Brief calls for a transformation of the Prora complex so that it can be used as an extension of the Berlin University of Arts (UDK). The proposal will accomodate a specific artform as well as 12 artist recidencies. The project that follows is working with a music conservatory.
TO INTERVENE With the development of a project in mind, the landscape has been analyzed and a point of interest has been found in the spaces and obstructions created by the complex in the landscape. With its line-like characteristics, Prora slices through the surrounding nature, creating a series of ribbons lying parallel to each other in the narrow piece of land between the Eastern Sea and the Kleiner Jarsmunder Lake in the middle of the island. These ribbons can roughly be divided into the categories BUILDING, INFRASTRUCTURE and NATURE. Between the two, new spaces are created in the nature, but at the same time, the ribbons become obstructions for one another as previously described. In collaboration with Christopher Sejer Fischlein (AAA, 6th Semester) a series of studies aiming at laying out a strategy for creating an intervention in the near context of Prora are conducted. A general theme for the proposed strategies is to work with
breaking the north-south axis, engaging both infrastructure and nature to the east and west of the complex in the proposal; some with an emphasis on visual connections, others with emphasis on physical connections. This proposal applies the “lift” strategy (described in “Interventions in the Landscape”, Strategy #09), leading the visitor under the ground in order to re-program the approach to the building as well as creating awareness about what can be seen and what is hidden in the current landscape conditions.
TO RECIEVE The visitor arrives at the complex as dictated by existing paths – penetrating the ribbons of nature only where infrastructure allows it. He will enter the courtyard designated to the program, meet an anonymous, untouched façade and a door; seemingly leading him into the building. He will, however, be directed into a tunnel, segregated from any companions and deprived of sense of time, place, direction and distance. He will emerge on the beach and see the ocean; otherwise hidden from the original approach. Behind him, inside the forest, fragments will lure him in; toward Prora. He will be received by sound, by performing artists and by light through shade; by surprise and wonder. The forest is inhabited by performance. He can stop and listen and watch or he can keep moving towards his original goal. Entering the building, he is met by an abandoned architecture. And sound. In the distance. He will explore the building, seeking the source of the sounds, maybe realizing that the source is the artists rehearsing in enclosed, introvert spaces scattered around in the original structure of Prora. Maybe he will never find the source. Maybe he will leave the building
again, marked only by sound and the rawness of the Nazi architecture.
TO RELATE The proposal aims at creating a strong experience for the individual visitor – encouraging him to engage in the architecture both physically and visually. Music is time in its most pleasant form. In order to let the visitor focus on this form of time completely, his present perception of time is taken away and restored in a new form. The artists in residence – each staying for short periods of time – experience a differentiation between the spaces in which they live, where they rehearse and where they perform. Rehearsal – being a strongly introvert activity – takes place inside the original building in acoustically tuned spaces. These spaces are closed to the public, but leak sound into surrounding spaces, creating the experience of raw sound being exhibited alongside raw, historic spaces. Closely connected to rehearsal is each artist’s living space; giving him the opportunity to establish a symbiotic relationship between his needs as a human and his acts of creation as an artist. Dethatched from the building’s structure are the spaces for performance – functioning as a three
dimensional, extravert façade that draws attention from the inner spaces. They are spaces for the artist to meet the visitor; for music to be delivered face to face on the artist’s terms. The architecture of the inner spaces winds its way through the original structure – hiding in the infinite repetition, lasciviously leaving traces of sound for visitors to follow. Paths are created by removing or adding small elements to separate or connect spaces as yet another attempt at breaking the passiveness of the buildings axis. Artists will live, rehearse and record above, below and beside the visitor, but never in sight. The architecture of the transformation stimulates helps the artist to get lost and to re-discover. In the same way, it allows the visitor to get lost in his perception of what music and sound means while experiencing a historical space with heigtened senses.. Expectations meet surprise inside the building, and in the forest, the visitor meets the artist. This project is about the reprogramming of a historical building no longer in use, it is dealing with a problematic landscape condition and it is transforming perceptions of the relationship between sound and architecture. Welcome to Rügen.
“If I could record them and transmit them to the present age, they would constitute nothing more, nowadays, than dead sounds. They would be, in a word, sounds other than what they actually were, and from what their phonographic labels pretended they were – since it’s in ourselves that the silence exists. It was while the sounds were still mysterious that it would have been really interesting to render the mystery palpable and transferable.” Villiers de L’Isle-Adam