MEMORY & SITE
MEMORY & SITE
JAMES R. MIZE
DEDICATION: I would like to dedicate this book to my family who without their help and support these past five years, especially this one, would not have been possible. Second I would like to acknowledge the love and support of Katie Marie, in these past six years I have watched us grow and support one another in everything we do. To many more years.
The problem: Memory Loss Harming existing fabrics Over Consumption of space Shallow aesthetic Disconnect in human dwelling The response: Reacting with Memory The businessman approach The poetic approach Short and long term memory Geologic and human time Physical and psychic memory The methodology: The Process of Memory Personification of site Interpretive poetry Narrative of times Semiotics and memory Abstracting the poetry The understanding: Memory and Existing Extracting the existing Experiential understanding Perception of the overlooked The conclusion: Memory and Time Cyclical process of memory Moments of understanding Why this matters to architecture Uniqueness of all sites Boston, Fenway Intervention Site Introduction Conceptual Development Process Of Memory Intervention Outcomes Bergen, Norway Intervention Site Introduction Conceptual Development Process Of Memory Intervention Outcomes Extras What Is A Window Timeless Abandon Circulation: With the Urban
CONTENTS:
Introduction: Memory and Site, Solving the disconnect of modern thinking Humans design and construct landscapes that harm the existing cultural, urban fabrics by erasing the past, consume unnecessary amounts of space and purely desire the aesthetic and “the shallow image”. This form of architecture causes a disconnect between the social, public, economic and ecological aspects of human dwelling. The architect has a responsibility to respond to sites, not like a businessman accepting a blank canvas or clean slate, but like a poet. The poet absorbs their surroundings and responds with greater intentions by translating this experience into meaning. This business like perception of architecture emphasizes the point that humans should respond to the idea of site by designing with memory. By understanding the function of short and long term memory the architect can understand the physical and psychological implications structures have on a place. Working memory is a function of the short term memory system controlling the stimuli humans pay attention to and ignore. The translation from short term to long term memory is based on an individual’s past experiences. Sites have a memory and relay that past in very subtle ways overlooked by humans. A site wants to remember what has passed and tell that story to the future but this personification of site is where the architecture intervenes in the process. This narrative develops a strategy creating a dialogue between the past, the existing and the future. The interpretive poem is filled with architectural metaphors that the semiotics or meaning of these phrases translates into architecture through moments of time, pause, circulation and spaces. The interpretive poem is a sequence of history, landscapes and spaces and how they relates to the greater. The writing responds by extracting the existing conditions through experiences of the built and unbuilt. This idea stretches the boundaries of site to reach the extents of the built, unbuilt realms. This type of analysis begins the process of developing the sequence of moments in time and history for the “new” architecture. The architecture is defined through poetic terms of pace, tempo and rhythm set up by this new type of interpretive poetry. The architecture of memory is a cyclical process of changing moments that further your understanding of time, history and place.
THE PROBLEM: MEMORY LOSS
HARMING EXISTING FABRICS Todays architecture is a reaction of ideas, concepts to answer the voids of modern and postmodern thinking. Modernity was a function driven barrier of concrete where form became the function and the human became secondary. To design an architecture for today means to be present in a sense of humanity and hope the building follows along. The architect has degraded itself to the image, cool render and aesthetic feel of millions of parts put together. The ideas behind this thinking are not only in danger of continuing the modern ways of thinking but removing human interaction all together. This lack of human interaction we see in our society, based on our dependence on technology, is embedded in our shallow desire for the aesthetic. The existing nature of cities and the urban context is still affected by this modern thinking. Our quest for cool, cheap materials and “build it bigger” attitude have brought architecture into the secular realm. The toll of a highly engineered, materialistic, architecture is not necessarily unimportant to our buildings. The trouble lies in the meaning of all these things and if as humans we have thought of the implications the new has on the existing? “Recurring physical and political structures operating in the background are crucial components of the urban matrix. Patterns, streets, alleys, and other urban pathways have a structure, hierarchy and political and social coding that become a powerful stabalizing datum”(Burns 59). Have we understood the existing as being different in every site, condition, scenario, place? engineering is devised so that each problem can be treated in the same way. The way we build with materials, structural systems, plumbing, electrical wants to be in such a regularized way that these things take away from what each unique site deserves. Architecture and its “shallow image” has completely regularized, like many trends, what looks good and what is cool. The function of the systems and the building itself comes primary. What is left in the background of design and intention is the site. Sites are unique, place specific and have greater implications on the social, cultural, economic, ecological built and unbuilt fabrics. Do we forget to ask ourselves what are the implications on the surrounding environments? We must understand what is being forgotten.
Abu Dabi Skyscrapers
OVER CONSUPTION OF SPACE The built fabric is everything built by humans, that has existed. The status of the built conditions do not matter, for instance, occupied, unoccupied, under construction etc. What is built is built. The unbuilt fabric is one that is not the opposite of the built but a lack of the built. The natural, geographic, ecological, geological systems of the earth constitute the unbuilt. The geographic landscape that has been shaped over billions of years uninterrupted by humans is the unbuilt fabric. The ecological fabric has everything to do with the opportunity for human interaction with nature. The ecological systems of an urban condition consist of unbuilt landscapes and how the human interaction can occur with the natural environment. The economic fabric supercedes both social and cultural fabrics by expressing where people want to live and what the differing values of space exist. Economic fabrics also exist to create opportunities for wealth, trade and monetary exchange. This idea that the economic fabric has two meanings both tied to location in terms of proximity and in terms of real estate value. The economic fabric is important for creating opportunity for growth within the urban environment. “He exhibited his “Plan Voisin”, sponsored by an automobile manufacturer, class-based stratification, in 1925. He proposed to bulldoze most of central Paris north of the Seine and replace it with his sixty-story cruciform towers from the Contemporary City, placed within an orthogonal street grid and park-like green space”(Flint 21). The social fabric consists of an architecture of demographic conditions, who lives where and why, not what they do there. The importance of an urban social fabric is that the demographic is diverse, well populated in terms of density and is successful. The success of a social fabric is defined by architecture and that the spaces convey a socially diverse condition, not discluding or negligent. The cultural fabric is more of what people do when they are within this fabric. Where people go, why they go to these places and who they go with makes up the cultural fabric of the urban condition. Culture is defined by diversity and set up by the social conditions of the architecture. Cultural fabrics consist of food or agriculture, faith, activities, events, places.
Corbusier: La ville Radieuse
SHALLOW AESTHETIC The disconnecting nature of our spaces is due to the fact architects are more successful designing things that look cool because of the client. Architecture that just looks good sells its that simple. Part of the disconnect however can be attributed to the over consumption of space in the urban fabrics. A single building or development changes the scale of the current environment which in turn changes the way the existing fabrics function. This over consumption is dangerous and again can be traced back to shallow aesthetic and how cool would it be if we did this. Wasted space in the city and architecture is not a new idea. Skyscrapers, mansions, and modernist master plans are types to be discussed as wasting urban space, ignoring the human being in both scale, usable space and interaction. All of these ideas create a disconnect in existing fabrics by their amalgamation of spaces and material. Both the housing mansion and the skyscraper are a slapping of floors and space either top to bottom or side to side. In a skyscrapers condition the floors become pancakes of steel and concrete leaving the ground for a hundred stories or more. “The further from the ground the less meaning the architecture has�. In addition to the towering height, cast shadows and overly oppressive scale the amount of unused, not rented space in skyscrapers is at an astonishing rate in current practice. The systems and material requirements are extraordinary and unsustainable for human life. The example of the mcmansion in America becomes an overly large spaces for a very small amount of people. In New England the average square footage in some towns becomes greater than 2,000 square feet for less than 5 people. This waste of space, misunderstanding of how much space we actually need to dwell and live is becoming even worse in other places. The southern united states, where space is cheaper, and in adequate supply, houses go beyond the 3 and 4 thousand square foot volume for the same amount of people. The idea that people need this much space to live is absurd and should not continue as a regular practice. Le Corbusier’s master plan for an urban Paris living park consists of several medium rise towers, expansive stretches of highway and vast areas of human disconnect. The automobile seemed to be the answer for humans and architects designed with the automobile instead of human interaction. The expansive voids supplied by this excruciating scale became a fact when these types of waste of space modern design started showing up in cities such as new york. Where several functioning urban communities were ripped apart for high rise buildings and a expansive voids of open concrete courtyards and highways. Post modern thinking continued upon these ideas for designing for the scale of the highways and ignoring the disconnect in human life and interaction caused by this enormous scale. The architecture of the now now should address these issues while designing with memory and understanding of the existing.
Bronx Co-op Public Housing
DISCONNECT IN HUMAN DWELLING My earlier years in architecture school were surrounded by ideas of the unused site. “The site” was the place to take over, claim as my own and change for the “better”. Most sites in architecture are looked upon like this. We convince ourselves that what will go there in the future is the right thing to do on that site. Early site analysis focuses on the weather, sunlight and what the neighborhood looks like. This shallow thinking is problematic because the surrounding is ignored as if it doesnt have purpose. There is not a single design intention for the existing. For some reason as architects we just see our building in the neighborhood. despite the hundreds of buildings surrounding, ours is now the only one that matters to the neighborhood. This misguided thinking leads to a disconnect in the urban condition. An “unused” site has history, memories, diversity that serves a purpose for the city. Yet a perception of architecture is that the neighborhoods must be cleared for the “new” to exist. When designing with memory and an understanding of the existing, erasures and negative impact sites do not occur, it is the existing that strengthens the new. “... city areas with flourishing diversity sprout strange and unpredictable uses and peculiar scenes. But this is not a drawback of diversity. This is the point ... of it”(Jacobs 97). Simply by tapping into the existing fabrics one can understand where people want to go and why they want to go there. Instead of becoming a disconnect space where people avoid and nothing but the depraved aspects of society uses, these sites can contribute to a highly efficient human urbanism. Architecture through memory can find meaning in the forgotten, neglected erasures of the built environment. The insightfulness of remembering what once occupied a site is important to understand its “failure”. As humans we strive to correct our mistakes and learn from them so we can be better people in the future by not making the same mistakes again. As architects are responsible for rectifying the past mistakes of unthoughtful design. No more unused, waste of space architecture but an efficient means of dwelling as humans must take place.
Albany New York: Empire Plaza
THE RESPONSE: REACTING WITH MEMORY
THE BUSINESSMAN APPROACH The problems called out in the above writing bring into focus to set up the ideas of designing with memory. Before memory can become architecture there are important approaches to this type of site, existing conditions driven design to understand. When it comes to memory what do we think of? Our memories are filled with moments in time that have been washed away and distorted by time. This distortion and overall embrace as to what memory can bring to architecture is erased and skipped over in todays building practices. Architecture works as a business and an art and the practice itself because of the business is based in monetary gain. The architect when inheriting a site to build upon gains a sense of power in terms of ownership of this site. “Unfortunately, things operating in the background-including the earth- have not always been well understood or valued...If background seems inappropriately modest, we should remember that in our modern use of the word it means that which underscores not only our identity and presence, but also our history� (Burns 58).
The site works as a vessel to be filled with whatever the architect, approved by the client, wants to build. The problem in this is that the architect wants to build as many floors and as much efficient square space as possible to make money. In fact in the business based architecture the client pays for the amount of design work is done on a project. Each phase is budgeted out, this means there is a limit to design so the conceptual, site related practices of memory and history are forgotten. The sense of power when gaining a site and the quest for monetary gains in business transform architecture into meaningless structures that harm the existing fabrics. These intentions of today’s architecture lack creativity, originality and most importantly the understanding of the existing conditions. Without understanding the existing conditions the businessman approach to architecture creates environments that lead to more and more problems, ultimately destroying our urban centers.
Boston: Pancake Structures
THE POETIC APPROACH The businessman will understand the most efficient way to construct an architecture while maximizing profit margins. This idea is based on limiting the amount of hours employees can spend designing architecture. This approach works when limiting the understanding of the site. A reaction to the businessman approach is to discover an approach that works better for the ideas of memory, site and the existing conditions. The poetic approach to architecture is one that intends to explore and understand, not only the deeper meanings of architecture, but the surrounding contexts and fabrics of the urban site. The poet bases their work on experience and reflection on what those experiences were. The poet absorbs their surroundings and responds with greater intentions by translating this experience into meaning. A Dutch Interior: John Hejudk the mandolin intestines of hollowed black crystals slide against the internal curvature ultimately released through the hole of stretched fibers held the diminished in a tap
Poetry in architecture is about the moments in time and space and this translation from an experiential form to a written form is the basis of designing with memory. The poet seeks to understand the deeper meaning of the world around them. This approach is unlike the businessman approach to site because the poet discovers, explores and interprets the subtle aspects of their surroundings. The poetics of space . This extraction of meaning from the context of a site translates to an architecture of memory because the language of the poem highlights time, history and human interaction with these ideas. The poet understands time as it relates to changes in nature, including human change.
Sverre Fehn: Gyldendal Printhouse
SHORT AND LONG TERM MEMORY To understand memory further one needs to understand the sequence of moments and how they begin to relay themes of time, space, place and locations. The sequence of moments related to memory are short term and long term memory. Each one of these systems is responsible for translations of information, experiential stimuli into storage or memory. Our memories understand time through short term and long term moments, these moments then are influenced by new experiences and become fragmented because of time. Each system has a method for translating stimuli into memory based on the sensorial capabilities of the human being. Short term memory has a separate function regulating stimuli called the working memory. “The working memory has a primary system in the central executive and the function is to control your attention in order to absorb or reject certain stimuli. For instance the working memory can only comprehend on average 7-9 stimuli at a single time, this means once the attention process is cycled into experiencing more than an average of 8 stimuli it dumps or forgets the first stimuli in the sequence. Once the 8 stimuli have been filled up the forgotten or ignored stimuli then become part of the impermanent short term memory process� (Mcleod). The most important fact to understand is that our brain subconsciously decides, through the working memory, what to pay attention to and what not to. This is important to understanding long term memory because the brain based on our experiences decides to store certain information based on semiotics, verbal, visual and visuo translations. Our long term memories cling to semiotics to form memories that leave the most lasting imprint on us as humans. The second most important way long term memory translates from short term memory is through written information translating into audio, visual semiotics. What this means is that when we write something down our brain translates the meaning of these forms of communication into visual or audible stimuli. This happens because the brain works to use all of the senses of the human body to understand the deeper meaning in our experiences. To find the memory is everything we do, based on our experiences. These translation systems are the keys to understanding memory in architecture and how each experience and translation relates to a time in our lives as humans.
J. Mize: City, Memory Diagram
GEOLOGIC AND HUMAN TIME What an architecture of memory argues is that time can be measured as humans through the things we build and nature. There is a relationship between humans, architecture, and nature. The following will discuss the natural relationship as geology because this relates more to the layering of time consistent with the idea of memory. One of the strongest translations of memory in architecture is through nature, geology and the unbuilt landscape. There is a connection to nature as humans because we are a part of nature. We are time, geology, history, and memory as a human container. Long term memory is greatly influenced by nature in architecture because the natural environment is one we seek interaction and refuge with. The relationship discussed is that of geologic time and human time. Geologic time is the unbuilt geology and natural forming processes of the earth since its creation. Human time in relationship to geology is everything we build as humans. For instance, the ruins of ancient egyptian civilization, the pantheon and steven Holl’s saint ignatius chapel. Each piece of architecture has a date of origination. Aldo Rossi in the architecture of the city describes this as the skeleton of an architecture. “The skeleton provides an understanding of history, for it is at once a structure and a ruin, a record of events, and a record of time, and in this sense a statement of facts not causes” (Rossi 7).
Everything has an age and ages showing the nature of its time and existence in this reality. Essentially what he argues is the city is a collection of memory through the skeletons of all the buildings. Its this concept where memory can be pulled from the existing and becomes embedded in the architecture of the now. As humans we have a desire for interaction with nature and it is in this interaction where some of my oldest memories originate. The influence of nature, and geology on our long term memories as humans is undeniable. Nature is important and in this architectural argument, through the concept of memory does its greatest influence become clear. The ever changing, renewing, cleansing, power of nature is one that is most influential in human time and the built fabric. Ultimately everything humans build, human time, has a relationship to geology. This relationship is metaphorically, literally, and quite certainly both. “The skeleton provides an understanding of history, for it is at once a structure and a ruin, a record of events, and a record of time, and in this sense a statement of facts not causes.”
Sverre Fehn: Hedmark Museum
PHYSCIAL AND PSYCHIC MEMORY
The final translation in a response to the problem of memory-less architecture harming the fabrics of the city is through our senses as humans. Our senses overlap and interact, together forming the translations of our experiences and ultimately our memories. Despite their overlapping, combined nature they can be distinguished in two categories related to memory, those are physical and psychic senses. “Consequently physical memory activates primary senses such as sight, touch, and secondarily sound.” “Oppositely psychic memory is formed of sound, smell and taste. These senses are known as the non physical senses but create long term memories by the brains translation of visual, written information into sound” (Mcleod). “Memory is essential to all our lives. Without a memory of the past we cannot operate in the present or think about the future. When information comes into our memory system from sensory input, it needs to be changed into a form that the system can cope with, so that it can be stored” (Mcleod).
The architecture of memory, to understand the contexts of site, uses the relationship of physical and psychic memory to activate the sensorial experience of the existing conditions. This activation comes from an understanding of the background phenomena otherwise overlooked by the businessman architect. Conversely understood and poetically brought to life and understanding by the poet. The architecture works to activate all senses and adds another layer of sensorial experience by relating the physical and nonphysical experience into an approach for urban fabric memory.
J. Mize: Spaced Voids in Raising Horizons
THE METHODOLOGY: THE PROCESS OF MEMORY
PERSONIFICATION OF SITES The personification of sites having memory is an analogy for sites having memories and being able to express them. The architecture however is the intervening story teller so to speak. Here the architecture tells the story of the history, memories and past time of the site. Sites have history and consequently carry memories in the same sense as history takes place on a site. The site itself is made up of countless components that make each site, not only individual, but a vessel for human memories. This container of memories is tied to a site and only when the human experiences the sites does the memory ignite an experience of the past. The connection between memory and living things, such as humans and the components of the site is that we can both be filled with memories of our experiences. Architectural sites have memories and wish to tell the story of its past contents through the built form. “You say to a brick, ‘What do you want, brick?’ And brick says to you, ‘I like an arch.’ And you say to brick, ‘Look, I want one, too, but arches are expensive and I can use a concrete lintel.’ And then you say: ‘What do you think of that, brick?’ Brick says: ‘I like an arch” (Voyatsiz). A site is also an inanimate object where its many components cannot literally tell a story to the inheriting architect. Symbolically, however, a site is capable of revealing its memory through its history in very subtle and exploratively challenging ways. Although a site can’t speak and literally tell a story we can create an architecture of memory to understand disconnecting sites heal the urban fabrics of the city. These stories must be understood and told by humans because of the intervening power on sites and cities we have invested within our profession.
J. Mize: Site as a Container of Memory
INTERPRETIVE POETRY
In the previous text the antithesis for an architecture of memory and a response for the architecture are examined. Furthermore the argument is for an architecture of memory, not a text explaining why memory in architecture might be important. How would architecture of past events and the idea of something non physical be devised into something tangible you ask? The methodology of an architecture of memory emphasizing the site as a vessel for memory and laid out before hand by the poetic approach to site, is the interpretive poem. The poetry created for architecture of memory was born through experience of the existing city. A small number of walks within the existing fabrics helped me interpret the history and culture I was surrounded by in Bergen. The poem began as an interpretation of the history within the city and understanding the age of existing structures. A round of historical research through images and stories developed an understanding of the important cultural, social and historical moments within the city. The extraction of the existing within the poem comes from the emotion of the historical buildings. I asked myself what the building is trying to say about what it has been through. In one phrase or metaphor describing its time there within the context of human history. For instance there is a church along the journey that was bombed during the second world war and only the bell tower was spared from the smoldering destruction. The sensorial experience of that moment in the church’s history relates to the remnants left over from that specific time. Extracting these moments creates a deeper meaning of the human being in time and place. The second theme to the poem is creating a sequence of events and a sense of time between each of these moments. The different cadences, rhythms of poetry allow for a wide range of starting points for extracting the tempo in the interpretive poetry. This can range from a sequence between several moments to one long exposure of a moment within a site. Ultimately the interpretive poem is a diagram for understanding and extracting the deeper meanings from a site. This poetry is responsible for the rhythm, sequence, tempo and movement within the architecture of the site. The architectural spaces are ordered and sequenced based on the existing rhythm of the site. The interpretive poetry highlights the important contextual information into an architecture of the now. An architecture of memory born from history of the existing moments.
J. Mize: Interpretive Poem Abstraction
MEMORY AND POETRY Many of the site interventions created within the city of Bergen, created during my graduate year preliminary studio, were designed to understand the fragmented disconnect inherent upon several sites within the city. Along the pathway within the city were moments of pause, remembrance, highlights and disconnects that stood out to me as a designer. The success of the fabric in some portions of the city reveals an successful existing condition based on the criteria of healthy urban fabrics. Each intervention sets up the next piece of architecture along the journey and makes the disconnecting sites stand out in the long term memory of the journey. temporary interventions became a successful part of the architectural process in developing the ideas of designing with memory as it brings more meaning to the site. These interventions of memory were moments to understand the human relationship in time, space, history and life within the existing conditions while promoting human interaction. Everything the architecture becomes is extracted from the existing conditions of the site with the interpretive poem. Each intervention within each one of the before mentioned fabrics promoted a more interactive expression of public space because of their converging circulations. Although sites are not human, their personifying qualities activate our own memories opening up the stored history of a place. I have found that my memory constructs different dreams based on the specific places I sleep. For instance while at school i can only have a certain type of dream completely different from when I dream at home. This personal experience of dreaming related to memory shows me that memory is tied to certain places as a container or boundary for specific memories. The human is the only living organism that can travel beyond the bounds of sites and their containing memories. We take with us the best and worst of our experiences everywhere we go.
Renzo Piano: Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum
NARRATIVE OF TIMES How does the past inform the future? The architecture of memory works so that the individual can understand time as a state of constant change. The existence of past present and future are constantly working to form our reality each passing moment. What is present becomes the past and future in an endless cyclical process. What might happen is based on the present which becomes the past. One of the best ways to inform the future is to understand the existing, things that have been built, used, and not used. These studies give great insight as a design tool for a specific site. Memory is not about erasing what has past to build something “new� in the future. To not make the same mistakes in the urban fabrics as in the past is what memory seeks to accomplish in the built fabric. Architecture is time: the built is the past, present and future of our world. Spaces have an impact and meaning to our lives just by being a shelter and allowing life to live on. At a minimum meaningless architecture accomplishes this mundane aspect of staying the same, just living our lives. Meaningful architecture brings, an understanding of the depth of life, dwelling and connection to human life. This form of dwelling creates a type of emotion not present in a mundane, minimum achieving, as it is architecture. Architects should strive for humans to interact with a space by having a special experience that could not occur anywhere else but in that place at that time. Memory creates this type of experience and the most poetic aspect to this architecture is its connection to history, the existed. The image left, the footsteps of stillness, is an intervention on the outskirts of Bergen Norway. The history behind the site is a small town was razed to make room for the new highway, tunnel project in the 1960’s. Demolishing a chunk of the town left a void to later be filled by a large scale modenr housing project. After completion, reclaiming vegetation created a seam between the old town and the modern housing. This intervention removes the vegetation, in its place, along the seam, red concrete stairs fill the void between old and new. This causes an understanding of time through the skeleton of the existing architecture. A moment in time paused to reckon with the mistakes of the past while not understanding site. The memory fills the void with what used to be a closely knit town, left divided by an erasure of the past.
J. Mize: Footsteps of stillness: Bergen
SEMIOTICS AND POETRY
When arguing for an architecture of memory it becomes important to understand where meaning in memory comes from. To understand how the system of memory translates into an architectural experience of past human experiences. Long term memory works in such a way where everything we do, we take meaning from and translate that into future actions. Long term memory is constructed through three functions Procedural, semantic and episodic memory. The most important related to architecture is the relationship between procedural and episodic memory. Episodic memory is a part of the long-term memory responsible for storing information about events that we have experienced in our lives. This episodic element transfers stimuli from experiences and translated them into meaning based on prior experiences. The relating function is procedural memory, responsible for knowing how to do things, such as memory of motor skills. It does not involve conscious, therefore is an unconscious or automatic action. Finally to tie all of these functions together is the semantic memory, capable of storing information of the meaning to words and general knowledge. Architecture in current practice is interested in the procedural and episodic memories because of the experiences they bring to human occupants. Our experiences as mentioned before are responsible for shaping us as humans. We learn how to do things, procedural and store basic knowledge about the meanings of things for the rest of our lives. From single moments our short term memory goes through a process called consolidation to turn short term memories into long term moments. The knowledge as to why the brain turns certain memories from short term to long term is still unknown. For architectural purposes creating a meaningful experience such as the understanding moments in time can become long term memories by experiencing something for the first time. Changing the way humans perceive certain situations and bringing into question why our perceptions might be skewed. Our perceptions are based on our experiences and in turn become part of our memories that we take with us until a moment questions our only known way of thinking. Memory in architecture expresses a change in perception about how we design the sites within the fabrics of the city. Memory brings to the forefront aspects of our sites that were never thought of before and will change the way we think about time, change, neglect and such ideas in the future. (Mcleod)
John Hejduk: 13 watchtowers for cannaregio
ABSTRACTING THE POETRY The final methodology to be explored through the ideas of site and memory will be an abstraction of the interpretive poem. This is the part in the thesis where i will explain the process of next steps in the architectural design. What is an interpretive poem and what is the role of metaphors in architecture related to the poetry? The poem is a method of translation from an experience of the site and existing conditions into metaphors describing the existing moments. A translation in architecture could be informed as an abstraction of the language within the poem to create a sequence, rhythm and tempo of the architectural spaces. The moments in time, history and surrounding site become abstractions of the experience from the poem thus creating an architecture to frame these important aspects of the connecting fabric. The rhythm acquired from the beat of the poem, length of the lines, rhythm of the syllables all become essential to the understanding connections to the surrounding site. The abstraction is a chosen method to further simplify the meaning within the poem into an architectural language of memory and site. Each moment sets up the next experience in the sequence of the architecture. The same idea applies to a single site as a single element in a greater sequence of the city.
J. Mize: Bergen Site Plan
THE UNDERSTANDING: MEMORY & EXISTING
EXTRACTING THE EXISTING
It seems an architecture of memory wants to understand the fragmented and forgotten moments of our past that time has simply washed away. Our unconscious also chooses to ignore recorded stimuli. Although the poem is the key diagram for understanding the background story of a site, more importantly the narrative concentrates on how site is connected to the larger scale moments, location, city, geology, geography, place, region through memory. The interpretive poem is a sequence of history, landscapes and spaces and how they relates to the greater. The writing responds by extracting the existing conditions through experiences of the built and unbuilt. This idea stretches the boundaries of site to reach the extents of the built, unbuilt realms. This type of analysis begins the process of developing the sequence of moments in time and history for the “new” architecture. The architecture is defined through poetic terms of pace, tempo and rhythm set up by this new type of interpretive poetry. The process for extracting the existing conditions is through a series of mapping diagrams. Planimetric representation, sections and perspectives were the most effective in diagraming the existing conditions, especially the disconnects. The change in scale along with a sudden lack of organization became the most obvious examples of shifting urban fabrics. In Bostons historic west end speaks to this change based on the shift between 3 story brick buildings to a scrammbled high rise development. The old west end was demolished in the post war push for cleansing the city. Master plans required large tracts of space, thus uprooting an entire neighborhood. To avoid such tradgedies the process of memory revolves around mapping, narrative, historical research and abstraction as a method for architectural translation of site. In the case of the interventions upon the city of Boston the language of each intervention is different within the context of the scattered sites and larger site. What is first to be understood about the levels of intervention is the relationship of the new or proposed with the existing. When examining the context of a site, one must ask themselves what is the site? On the basis of intervention this can be the ground where the intervention takes place, or in this case the entire city of Boston. The two scales of site, a smaller and a larger are important to understand when intervening. For this study however it can be simply stated as how the “stuff” intervenes on what is being intervened upon. The levels of intervention themselves can be described as 1. The guidelines for the definition of the urban form. 2. The modification of the locus 3. The modification from within the building or circumscribed modification.
For the final interventions I am proposing a 4th level of intervention and that is an “archeological” repurposing to define urban form. For these final two interventions it is more of a study in repurposing the existing building for an exterior situated program. For instance the existing neighborhood buildings no longer have tenants within them because of the destruction of the west end. However the architecture can be repurposed without being totally demolished in order to further understand it as a relic or artifact from the past. it is a way to further understand time and memory within the site while forming an urban condition for circulation and public space. What it does is slice a section through the building for circulation, allowing the people to pass through the section or once invisible portion of the neighborhood and the old building itself. This intervention type is a hybrid between the three, as it forms the guidelines of a new urban circulation form, while modifying within the existing building. These moves repurpose the existing, unused architecture becoming an artifact that defines a guideline of urban forms for the site.
Boston’s Old West End: 1930’s
EXPERIENTIAL UNDERSTANDING Experiences and their triggers can be anything that our human senses have experienced and transferred into long term memory. As memory works to store past events, phenomenology is the study of how an experience can be translated into an architectural language. The phenomenological aspects of architecture are what unlock the connection between memory and architecture. “Our senses are constantly taking in stimuli both consciously: (semantic, episodic) and unconscious: (Procedural). These senses later in life after being stored in our brains become triggered again when that sense becomes re-introduced� (Mcleod). The disappointing aspect of this phenomena of remembering is that it is only a small sense of the original experience. This is why memory is a sad topic to read, especially in poetic form because our greatest memories as humans will never happen again the original way they occurred. The sequence of phenomenological moments within the architecture must express triggers for memory about the site. This is why the sequence of approach in the architecture of memory is so important. The approach is an experience of the existing that seeks to influence the sensorial experience within the architecture. Sequences of what happen within the architecture are subtly introduced from the existing conditions. The interesting part of the architecture is whether those subtle exposures become conscious or unconscious for the individual. An architecture of memory plays with the human psyche to make the individual understand the meaning embedded in our perceptions of time, history, and ultimately site. The holocaust memorial is an example of an experience that is embedded in history of place. This architecture brings to life a haunting experience of the dehumanizing experiences of the holocaust.
Peter Eisenman: Memorial for Murdered Jewish
PERCEPTION OF THE OVERLOOKED Memory is a subjective quality within each human being. Time washes away and distorts our memories until they bleed together, become fragmented or invent themselves. “Sometimes falling completely from our storage, moments are forgotten until once again exposed by the sensorial experience that created the memory.” This aspect of fragmented remembrance relates to architecture and the businessman approach through the industrial sites of our cities. Like fragmented memories time pulls apart a moment that had great meaning to us that we held on to in our lives. As time wears upon the brain only bits and pieces can be remembered. This sad moment relates to historically active sites like the industrial area, once serving a great purpose within our economic, cultural and social fabrics. Today, however, these sites have become a fragment of their former glory, working to disconnect cities and lay waste to opportunities for human dwelling. This does not mean that an architecture of memory makes again the mistake of the industrial site as to wipe clear a land for another purpose. Instead the architecture of memory wishes to understand the moments of the industrial fabric while connecting the new type of architecture. “The ground already exists as part of a broad network of political, social and ecological systems. If these systems were able to be part of th architectural whole, the the social, political and environmental alienation that characterizes modern life might be effectively ameliorated” (Dripps 56).
J. Mize: The Distortion of Time on Memory
THE CONCLUSION: MEMORY & TIME
CYCLICAL PROCESS OF MEMORY What time period do you manipulate to re-create architecture for future? How does architecture create a sense of understanding of what time is and what it means to humans? These questions start a dialogue about the cyclical process of memory but more importantly question our understanding of time to shape one’s perception. The architecture works to frame existing moments of the site to provide memory as a connecting design tool for urban fabrics. These moments of time are important for an unlimited number of experiences and memories based on their cyclical nature. Time weathers, distorts and makes changes in the geologic and natural realm. These simple changes in time provide the background for the framed moments within the architecture. As mentioned before memory can be triggered by many different phenomena.The unbuilt landscapes provide a strong connection between humans and time by telling the story of past occurances. Boston’s big dig project shows the story of the past by framing the old central artery site along with the destruction of the city to create that project. Memory’s cyclical process becomes a tool for designing with site in order to explain time and create a meaningful architecture. A single moment can mean something different to every person on earth. These differing experiences capture the essence of designing with memory by promoting individual perceptions of the existing. This architecture is not forcing a memory upon an individual but capturing the moments of time, history, memory to understand the architecture of the site. All living things change throughout their lifetime. Nature changes, for lack of a better word, naturally or automatically. The architecture of memory focuses on the understanding of subtle, beautiful changes in an architecture of fabric reconnection. Experiences, memories and living things change with time. Its about capturing the changes to bring meaning to an idea overlooked by humans. We take for granted what time means in our lives and in our architecture.
1930’s
1970’s
2010’s Boston: Central Artery & Big Dig
MOMENTS OF UNDERSTANDING As examined earlier in this text, memory works in phases such as long term, short term and working. While understanding that moments in time are being captured by the architecture, what is the significance of these moments architecturally? Moments of pause, contemplation and interaction are ones working to be explored in this architecture of memory and site. Moments of pause in architecture, related to memory, are used as a device where the individual stops, sits, or waits. These changes in the rhythm slow down the individual which forces the users attention from inside the building but to the existing fabrics around the new architecture. The pauses slow the occupant to a standstill and only during this still moment can the understanding of the changes beyond can be realized. Contemplation is similar to pause but differs again in pace and what is to be explored. Contemplative moments in architecture are of longer duration than pauses. Contemplation is a prolonged pause, simply spending a longer amount of time within a memorable moment. Contemplation provokes a deeper thought through an engulfing of the sense by the existing history, memory, and nature of the site. Where a pause moment is merely a hint to the next moment, a contemplative moment is the full exposure of the change in perception of time, memory and disconnected fabrics. Contemplative moments work with pause and interactive moments within the sequence of this architecture of memory. Interactive moments take advantage of human interaction in a way to highlight what has been missing from this disconnected site in its most recent history. An interaction lost in the translation from one form of the site to another. The greatest opportunity for human interaction comes with a successful public space within the connecting architecture of memory and site. Human interaction is an opportunity to capture the emotional and experiential exchange between individuals that may share the space during the same time. Human interaction is a highlight of understanding that two or more people interacting at that moment in time may never occur again. Recognizing that the culmination of our decisions that day, that week, that year led to this moment of a pair of people interacting is a profound statement of memory, site, or time and space. There are unlimited combinations for who you might interact with, for how long, when and where each day. This architecture of memory and site takes advantage of the existing conditions to promote this interaction in our daily lives.
Steven Holl: St. Ignatius Chapel
WHY THIS MATTERS TO ARCHITECTURE This final section will examine why memory matters to architecture. Why does architecture care about what happens or already happened around the site? Simply bringing more meaning to the way we design, the intentions we have for sites and what the implications of what we design have on the existing fabrics. “...buildings that in time grow naturally into being a part of the form and history of their place. Every new work of architecture intervenes in a specific historical situation. It is essential to the quality of the intervention that the new building should embrace qualities that can enter into a meaningful dialogue with the existing. If the intervention is to find its place, it must make us see what already exists in a new light” (Zumthor 17). I believe architecture should bring meaning to our lives. Finding new ways to design with meaning and intention in architecture should be of importance for generations to come. Architecture should inspire people to be better, do better and think about the problems tied to the places they inhabit. As architects it is our responsibility to keep an existing fabric healthy instead of disconnecting or harming the harmony within the existing. Not trying to break or change something that already works for the city and the inhabitants. Our intentions are what drive the design process, not the style, look or size of the architecture being designed. The intentions for the site are equally as important in the resulting implications an architecture will have on the site. In this instance, again, the architect must understand the implications of their designs. To design with memory gives the architect a design tool for thinking about sites, instead of destroying the existing with the “new”.
J. Mize : Perception Points
UNIQUENESS OF ALL SITES The uniqueness of sites expresses how each site has differing qualities that can become the focal point of memory within the architecture. It is the focal points that make each site different and unique to their place within the greater context of the city. The images to the right are photographs of sites I have had throughout architecture school. Each idea for the architecture came from the differing qualities, conditions of the site. Memory is a subjective experience to the individual. Despite this subjectivity the architecture promotes different interactions with the existing based on the cyclical nature of memory and time. The focal points work as a component to each site as a container or boundary of memories. Memory is important to humans because it defines our greatest and worst experiences that linger within our brains. Whether it be a conscious or unconscious memory our brain still records most of the stimuli we experience. As architects we are faced with a more secular world where what we experience and build, is what it is. We are losing the metaphors of design and memory is a way to bring a deeper meaning into the architecture of site, the existing fabrics and of disconnected fabrics. In a way sites are similar to humans in terms of the containers of memory and experience. The difference is that a site does not have a say for what it wants to become in terms of architecture. The architect must take a deeper look at the existing to bring to the forefront the focal points, uniqueness of the site. By doing this the designer unlocks the potential of a meaningful architecture that brings further meaning to the site, and the interlocking existing fabrics of the city. Our best and worst memories define us as people, why not let architecture speak in the same language to engage our cities with meaningful spaces for dwelling. To understand the good and the bad, to learn from our mistakes as designers and people. An architecture of memory is time and the basic question asks the site what it wants by designing with the memories from the existing. The consequences of our actions, a statement for all people to contemplate and understand, whatever your work may be.
J. Mize : Project Site Images
THESIS INTERVENTION EXAMPLES
Bergen Norway Site Plan
Fenway Site Plan
I. BERGEN, NORWAY
Rhythmic Arrival: Perspective
BERGEN: SITE INTRODUCTION The site in Bergen Norway Stretched East and West from one end of the city to the other. Specifically from the suburb of Fjellet Nord to another suburb Gyldenpris. The “site� was a path between two of the mountains surrounding the city. Along the path the architectural interventions for the thesis occupy specific moments within the city. These memorable moments include the old fire station Skansen, The fishmarket by the waterfront, the main axis of the Torget, St Johansens church, The industrial yard, over the river and through the mountain Lovstakken. This path, which becomes the journey for the new architecture within the city, is a 2 mile stretch through the heart of the old and new cities. The site for each intervention was picked through the interpretive poetry writing process. During our graduate travel I was able to experience most of the Torget, waterfront, st johansens church and the mountain in Fjellet Nord. This one time experience of the rich culture of the city guided my thinking about the whole city as a site. Through research of historical maps from the 18th century along with engravings of the old city were used to develop that narrative of time throughout the city. Each site was chosen for its cultural and historical importance to the city. These moments of history and time along the path capture the sensory memory of place in Bergen. One of the more motivating pieces of the site was the public space and how those spaces within the city were able to frame certain views of the landscape beyond. What was also apparent through the research prior to the experience was how one half of the city is very disconnected from the other. The industrial yard and the tunnel, highway system divide east and west. After reaching the church of st johansen the path becomes more of a wandering experience atop the cultural hill in Mohlenpris. From that point the river and opposing mountain really come into full view and heighten the awareness of the disconnect. The industrial yard was specifically interesting because of its historical importance to the imports and exports of Bergen. It was the busiest port in all of the Nordic countries. Its current state was that of disuse thus its now disconnecting nature within the city fabric. The disconnect leads to no being able to experience the city as a whole, from mountain to mountain, this was the main focal point for the circulation of the thesis intervention. Both history, memory and time were very well represented and rich within the city of Bergen. It had a character of it as if the city between several mountains being held together by its beautiful landscape and historical past. This sense of awe to the past leads to unusual moments like the industrial yard that disappoint the experience.
Bergen Historical Images
CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT The conceptual development behind the project in Bergen is based on time in the city. Specifically how time works in Bergen becomes the forefront for the development of the thesis as well. Time in Norway is different than anywhere else in the world, whether its sunlight, the aurora borealis, the aging of the historical buildings, the changing of the seasons, the ancient mountains and glaciers surrounding the city. Time can be measured in many ways and in turn experienced in the city the same way. The architecture works to frame the existing moments within and beyond the city. Moments where along the experience of the path make you question the moments framed and the ones where no view is given except that of the sky. Each intervention was designed with a material that becomes the catalyst for the sensorial experience of each intervention. The metal sheeting taken from the industrial yard is used as the architectural frame of time in the city. The color of these metal sheets was selected to match that of the color of sunset throughout the summer months. Views were crafted to bring to the forefront the sensorial experience of that specific moment based on the existing conditions, the stuff of the site. Views of the Torget, St Johansens, The mountains work to set up the moment of the industrial yard where there is no view, only the long, never ending path within the walls of the circulation bridge. This experience was developed to relay the sense of loss, disconnect and questioning. To reiterate the conceptual design revolved around the sensory information perceived through the experiences of each site within the city. One intervention leads to the other and in turn they speak to one another through the experience and similarities. The moments of questioning from the industrial yard become revealed through the experience of the other interventions. The sensory information of memory becomes the process of understanding time in the city of Bergen.
Purched Humanity: Perspective
PROCESS OF MEMORY The architecture tells the story of the site and in turn speaks to the memory if its past. This saying was coupled with the scientific process of memory to develop the interventions. Memory is a cyclical process, as explained earlier in this text, that translates all of our experiences as stimuli input. Then the brain takes this information and translates it in two ways, visual and audible, sensorial loops. Finally long term memory is formed if this information can be retrieved after its first inception. Sites like the industrial site can be considered as moments of memory loss because the information was once there but now its purpose is almost forgotten. The architecture works to frame the loss in order to find its meaning once more. The series of these interventions work in a similar way, framing and exposing deeply rooted elements of time and history through sensorial information given by the existing site itself. For instance the waterfront fish market Fisktorget sits on a pier that serves as a walking path. Hidden out of site however from the path is the view to the hanseatic houses and the ocean beyond. The series of steps allow the circulation to slow down or pause, at the same time the starts shift directions to move the body towards the view. These steps can also be used to pause, sit and take in the view from sunset, while understanding the framed historical importance of the hanseatic houses. The view from that particular moment would not have been possible without the Hans merchants settling in Bergen. The stimuli input which becomes the aura of the view and the history of the waterfront becomes the forefront of the experience. Instead of using the path or circulation to get from point A to point B the circulation transforms to interact with the memory and time of the site. The sensorial information is then absorbed and thus remembered when contacted or experienced again at the next interventions. The human brain is a vessel for storing information, knowledge and actions. This is the reason why repetition is so effective to storing information long term. Each intervention is a repetition of understanding time in Bergen Norway using many of the senses and not just one.
Intervention Original Process Sketches
Bergen Norway: Process Models
INTERVENTION CONCLUSIONS What did I learn? The narrative writing of the existing experience became the script in which the architecture played out on the site. The history imbedded within the city of Bergen became the architecture of the site. Telling its long lost stories of sunrises, church processions, mountains shaded in darkness, the old fire house. What became evident to me is most of the experiences I had in Bergen, i did not realize where I was. I knew what city, country, place, but I didn’t understand the gravity of what it meant to be able to stand there. The total experience of a place through the architecture of memory helps one to understand the first time. to feel the sensorial information instead of experiencing it then having to look it up later to understand it. The city as a whole offers a ceremonial experience of architecture and time. With its old buildings mixed in with the new, aging materials faded by the winter’s harsh weather. History lives in the city, whether it was the procession of the Nazi’s down the Torget or the funeral for those lost in the burning of the ancient Hanseatic city. Architecture has been too caught up with being new and revolutionary but for what reasons? In Norway they understand their past and it forms their future. Architecture of memory has an expression of past, present and future. Its place in time always changing and meant to change. Architecture should embrace time and its cyclical life. Finally the process in which this architecture can exist starts with the original experience. Although memory can be subjective and what history and past time to remember is also difficult. The ultimate goal is to embrace the site as a vessel full of memory that an architect can choose from to build. There is no right or wrong answer only time and how to capture it before it slips away again. I believe each intervention individually and as a whole capture a moment in time, however long that moment lasts, is up to you.
Bergen Norway: Intervention Samples
Bergen Norway: Final Models
Point of No Return: Plan
Point of No Return: Perspective
II. BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: FENWAY
BOSTON: SITE INTRODUCTION The site in Boston is one of importance to the city because of its location and surrounding culture. Its difficulties and intricacies lie below as the interstate highway runs east to west. The massachusetts turnpike divides the neighborhoods of Back Bay and Fenway despite its sunken elevation. It is wedged between the Citgo sign on Commonwealth avenue and the famous Fenway Park. Other prestigious landmarks including the Commonwealth Hotel, Boston Conservatory and House of Blues. Despite the many well know social venues in the area there are moments that overlooked in terms of the sites culture and identity. For instance the Lesley College of art and Design, and the old warehouses from the industrial railroad. The opportunity of the site is to bridge the highway and connect the neighborhoods like they once were. In the The sites early geological history included a marshy wetland that was a backup to the charles river estuary. After a series of plannings and landfills the site became home to the railroad and industrial warehouses. In the late 19th century Frederick Law Olmsted designed the Emerald Necklace and with it two major pieces that influence the current site. The Fens park and the Charlesgate river parkway. This design greatly shifted the fabric of the two neighborhoods to a perfect north, south orientation. The site would remain part of the urban fabric until the 1950’s when the interstate highway was constructed. The destruction of both charlesgate and the mouth of the Fens was the result of the highway system. An entire block of houses was demolished on what was known as newbury street to make way for the new roads and transit systems. Both warehouses and circulation were affected as the buildings fell into decay. Currently the only point of circulation is the bridge on Brookline Avenue on axis with the historic citgo sign. The other indirect paths are tangled in expressways and overpasses. Interesting to add is a proposed project on the opposite side of the highway adjacent to the site. This project also spans over highrise to provide housing and commercial spaces. The disconnect with is site poses an interesting question as to how tall should these new buildings be? Many of the new buildings in the area tower over the existing row houses in the area and makes the pedestrian seem very small and uncomfortable. The historic and cultural importance of a site like this should respect that which is already there. For instance the light stands at Fenway Park should be the development height restriction in the area. The Fenway neighborhood is changing drastically, part of the problem is a loss of identity related to the new architecture. The site poses an opportunity to confront these new out of scale high rises. There have been petitions and proposals to remove some of the overpasses that clog up the emerald necklace and bring the traffic to a more pedestrian friendly street level. This would activate the existing streets instead of bypassing them. Overall there needs to be more thought and that goes into a disconnected site such as this one to create a healthier urban experience.
Fenway: Site Documentation Diagrams
Fenway: Interpretive Poems
CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT The conceptual design for this intervention begins with the path or circulation on which the journey of the site unfolds. The existing subway station and circulation through the site crosses at three main points. The lesley college of Art, The house of Blues, and The Boston Conservatory. Each one of the circulation paths begins to take its program from what it connects within the existing fabric. For instance the Lesley college of art and design will have program of design gallery spaces and studios. The Boston Conservatory will have Dance studios as well as a new indoor outdoor performance hall. The circulation interacts with the layering of the site through the existing conditions projections from each side of the site. There is finally one major path that runs between two vertical walls east to west through the entire site. This is the demolished housing void. This is conceptually where the demolished houses on Newbury street were before the highway. The idea behind the void is that it is open to the highway below expressing its connection to the highway being its reason for demolition. A series of large metal grates cover the void allowing the pedestrians to circulate through the void. The eventual spaces of the new architecture also have the opportunity to interact with this wall by extruding through it. The Vertical void begins another conceptual idea for the overall experience of the site. This being a poem written earlier in the semester about the pollution and emissions from the highway below the site. The experience within the poem sets the tone for how the site should be experienced on a daily basis. This also segways into the way time can be perceived on the site through materiality and temporality. The emissions will build up and layer onto the exterior walls of the spaces. As long as cars emit carbon dioxide the material will continue to layer showing its age and weathering through its existence. The final conceptual development pieces were the programmatic interior space and the exterior landscape. The interior “Generic� box spaces sit atop the highway situated in the new landscape urbanism. The boxes are generic because of relationship between sensorial input and short term memory. The White concrete boxes are raised above the landscape sitting almost mute within the landscape. The reasoning is to make the urban landscape around it the focal point of the site with its connecting circulation of the existing neighborhoods. The circulation paths interact with the boxes and open into the layering of embedded public space. The boxes themselves are mode specific to the site based on a single view of an existing landmark. For instance the dance studio for the Boston Conservatory is punctured by an opening that directly frames the existing Conservatory building. Situating the new architecture to understand the time and memory of the old. Each space was designed to inherit the character of the existing while creating a new urban landscape connecting the two existing neighborhoods. The conceptual ideas were directly related to the processes of memory laid out in the previous text.
Fenway: Process Work
Fenway: Intervention Concept Models
Fenway: Intervention Process Models
PROCESS OF MEMORY The process of memory describes the conceptual translations of memory into the architecture of the site. The methodology explored throughout the thesis works to have architecture explain the time, history and memories of the site through the human experience. The Fenway site specifically explores the relationship between experiential stimuli input and sensorial input and decay. The architectural spaces become the generic input of the brains recording mechanism. The white box represents the unconscious input of our experiences of the site, in this case programmatic space. The sensorial input on the other hand is derived from the dry fog poetry and occurs in circulation moments throughout the site. The experience aims to change the perception of the highway and pollution when interacting with the same sensorial information in the future. The interaction between the two tell the story of the time, again, history and memory of the site. The Generic box spaces are the stimuli input and the highway void is the sensorial input and decay. Finally the urban landscape connecting the spaces and the circulation paths is the Long term memory of the site. The landscape inspired to connect moments of the emerald necklace is the experience of the site that is meant to stand out the most. The cyclical process of seasons in New England, The long geologic time related to human time all make for an experience that leads to meaningful human interaction within the urban context. Red Maple trees line the public space for shading and what their process provides in terms of leaves that weather red and stain the concrete and ground of the path. Memory works so that the brain records moments, experiences, and stimuli, both consciously and unconsciously. And it isn’t until later in time when that same stimuli is re-introduced that the brain pulls that data, recording, and then you understand that experience, sense or moment. It doesnt matter what type of experience, or sensorial moment, even the context of the memory can be 100% different the brain will still record it. Conscious, unconscious and time are the only differences when it comes to human memory. The site at Fenway will always have its layering of pollution on the walls protecting the landscape from this debilitating emission. There might come a day in Boston when the automobile might become non existent in which case the carbon leftover from that time will serve as memory to a past time through the architecture of the site.
Fenway: Process Section
Fenway: Generic space & Circulation Perspectives
Fenway: Landscape Plans
Fenway: Landscape Plans
WHAT IS A WINDOW What is a window? The thought of asking oneself questions about the things that we do is most important in architecture. But this question is more powerful because it frees the mind to form expressions and theories that are bound by only the question itself. It questions the idea of that thing to its core, until everything about it becomes curious. The question what is a window could be applied to anything, for instance, what is a wall? what is a floor? what is a surface. The questioning of what seem like simple and obvious things lead to the true use of imagination in architectural design. “What is a window” relates to the ideas of memory and the architecture site. Memory has all to do with past time, the conscious and unconscious consumption of stimuli by the brain through our experiences and short, long term functions of remembering. Site ties into these ideas through the lense of time in terms of geology as well as physical space. Memories which were experiences at one time were physical, they had place, time, context, just as a site does. The memory of a site is something that can’t be told through natural means but through architecture and an architects understanding of a site. When I think about what a window is in terms of time, memory and the site it all makes sense to me now in my brain. But relaying that same information to someone not inside my brain is the challenge as is everything. This idea of reality washes through dreams and memories with time. This same idea of reality that turns, what seem like good ideas into improbable notions. What is a window, a window is a glimpse into time, as it is now but also as it might have been many times ago. For memory a window is what opens space to what really matters, the notion of time and experience surrounds us. Everything has time but in turn not everything has memory, because this is an aspect to reality and living that only few animals are capable of. A window can frame yes but instead letting the actual piece of time and memory of the past create a void is something even more meaningful. The things of the site have time and if they had brains, would have memories of their own that could outlast the greatest human memories. In reality it is what we make of these things that matters, since we are the only ones capable of this great gift. Architecture can be directly intervened on by the “stuff” of the site, human or not. To pierce, puncture, break through, our physical walls with experiences and the physical remnants of time and space. A window can be a glimpse into the memory of the landscape, or the decaying time of a city building. It can be an instrument of gauging changes in time and space. A way to physically understand the past that we are fortunate has become our present, and our reality. Its a glimpse into what sites were like, or could be like, or should be like, but they are not. Time washes away the “stuff” of the site, just as time washes away and distorts our own human memories. What is a window is more than indoors, and outdoors, depth or shallow, light or dark. Its about time and our existences relation to that elusive thing. What is a window, will and should continue to define my thinking about architecture and its relationship to the things revolving around it. What is more powerful than an idea but then a question to challenge the conventional thoughts.
Generic Space: Fenway Perspective
TIMELESS ABANDON 3.28.15
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The public space should feature a combination of stone and grass and wood lounging materials. moments to pause and rest, moments to linger, moments to get lost, to wonder about the stars, and to sit an watch the groves of people streaming by on this hot summers day. Timeless abandon A gentle touch of the red maple leaves blossoming to their death as I wander through my thoughts in this small piece of city. I dip my hands into this calm glimmer of sensational wisdom and wonder why the world moves so quickly. why time is incapable of doing what you want for once. the thunderstorms of summer lusting for our awakening as the tears rip through our hairs. why does the wind always blow against our moving bodies and only when it moves with us is it too late to understand. Can the grass in that profusely polished lawn ever witness chaos, while chaos for living means opportunities of life. Will winters grain ever again be embraced in its abundance as cold lips ever grace our lives? White rectangular boxes, concrete, painted white. weathers, stains, and wears throughout its existence. Glass openings that express the existing artifacts, experiences, memory, time of the site. Circulation paths that slice through the site in this red colored metal grate. collecting dust, dirt, grime. Experiences are made up of sensorial information Memory in the sound of the clanging footsteps from the path Memory in the views/sight of the artifacts of the sight Memory in the touch of the dusty, grainy concrete Memory in the smell of the oil and burnt gasoline
J. Mize: Timeless Abandon
CIRCULATION: Interacting with the urban Circulation runs through the building. it is one of the only elements that can puncture through the existing void of the demolished neighborhood. vacant scraping void. is the demolished half of newbury street. circulation is a large piece of the cultural program on site because of its instrumentality for bringing in people to art galleries, baseball parks, and performance centers. circulation and movement becomes the spine through the vacant scraping void that crosses through the site and into each programmatic space. circulation is different in each scenario. the art galleries depend on slow moving circulation for people to stop and stare are the art or move slowly through it. combined with the framing of the existing structures and conditions within the site. the existing Lesley school of art and design becomes a framed piece of art work. 1.The interaction between “art� and circulation. art includes the gallery space and existing school building. Circulation is the primary piece of program in order to get to fenway park. Does this piece become more connected to the ballpark goer experience? Does it feel more like the street through the site? vendor stalls moments, spaces? or does it become a contained piece in itself. like a piece of art or history for the public to witness? does the path ahead of you frame where you are going? does it frame the ballpark as if it is history, and time and culture. that moment you are waiting for, or going to? walking to and from the ballpark becomes a cultural moment. it becomes a program within itself. how to frame circulation paths like a piece of art? 2. Interaction between the public and the journey to fenway park. The path to fenway park is a piece of history and culture itself. The performance center depends on a brief period of circulation or informal gathering spaces to watch a performance piece. the connection from inside and outside will be through the outdoor performance center. When the performance is not taking place it becomes a simple piece of outdoor circulation with an interaction between the path and the formal outdoor performance seating. This cultural performance moment is 3. The interaction between performance and public. the performance program frames the circulation as a performance itself that separates indoor, outdoor, and performance, audience.
Fenway: Circulation Perspective
MEMORY & SITE
1. Burns, Carol and Dripps, Robin. Site Matters. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print 2. Page Photo Credit http://yallaorienttours.com/images/uploads/skyscrapers-in-dubai-20130120-033726.jpg 3. Flint, Anthony. Modern Man; The Life of Le Corbusier, Architect of Tomorrow. La Ville Radieuse. New York, Amazon Publishing. 2014. Print 4. Page Photo Credit http://ad009cdnb. archdaily.net.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/51fadfb7e8e44ea2b000000f_ad-classics-ville-radieuse-lecorbusier_radiant-city.jpg 5. Page Photo Credit http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/ APARTMENTS_OF_%22CO-OP_ CITY,%22_A_VAST_HOUSING_DEVELOPMENT_IN_THE_BRONX,_NOT_FAR_FROM_ PELHAM._THESE_BUILDINGS_STAND_ ON..._-_NARA_-_549766.jpg 6. Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities: New York, Canada, Random House Publishing. 2002. Print. 7. Page Photo Credit http://www.vegaschatter.com/files/63189/WyndhamBlueAugust2013.jpg 8. Hejduk, john. Such Places as Memory> Cambridge, London: The MIT Press, 1998. Print.
12. Page Photo Credit http://archive. renaissancesociety.org/site/files/ media/4382/1981_hedjuk_08_b.jpg 13. Page Photo Credit https://c2.staticflickr. com/6/5250/5334159366_f8c7d34283_b. jpg 14. Page Photo Credit http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PJH3PalDLfM/UwZjsx9u4hI/ AAAAAAAABA0/OpvoACTGSJU/s1600/_ MG_2875.JPG 15. Page Photo Credit https://phaven-prod. s3.amazonaws.com/files/image_part/asset/1116141/U44Mb-vAvJdDJd7XJjIhYLM6OOU/medium_Screen_Shot_2014-0314_at_3.58.34_PM.png.jpg 16. Fjeld, Olaf. Sverre Fehn, The Pattern of Thoughts. New York: Monacelli Press, 2009. Print. 17. Holl, Steven. Parallax. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000. Print. 18. Page Photo Credit http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/BergenHordalandNorwayVagen.jpg 19. Zumthor, Peter. Thinking Architecture. Birkhauser: Lars Muller Publishers, 1998. Print.
9. McLeod, S. A. (2007). Stages of Memory - Encoding Storage and Retrieval. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/ memory.html 10. Rossi, Aldo. The Architecture of the City. Cambridge, London: The MIT Press, 1983. Print 11. Voyatzis, Costas. Even A Brick Wants To Be Something. http://www.yatzer.com/louiskahn-the-power-of-architecture Notes/ References