Report Bartlett MArch GAD 2014 by Theodora Maria Moudatsou

AUGMENTED SKIN

DEFORMED MEMBRANES AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL INHABITATION

Report // GAD _RC6// Theodora Maria Moudatsou

Bartllet School of Architecture

2013-14

MArch GAD Bartlett School of Architecture 2014 University College London

AUGMENTED SKIN DEFORMED MEMBRANES AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL INHABITATION

Report THEODORA MARIA MOUDATSOU

RC 6 _ Daniel Widrig

Soomeen Hahm Stefan Bassing Report Tutor: David Scott

Report // GAD _RC6// Theodora Maria Moudatsou

Bartllet School of Architecture

2013-14

CONTENTS Abstract Introduction 1

Historical research of the engagement between Human body and Architecture.

__13 __14

1.1

The structure and the purpose of the historical research.

__14

1.2

Key features of skin in historical terms based on the history of body. From Medieval skin to the Contemporary skin

__16

1.3

History of domestic typology and the Cultural evolution of the Wall, as extension of the interface.

__18

The use of Phenomenology as a mean of definition of Interfacial Inhabitation

__21

2.1

The idea of the shelter as the primitive house

__21

2.2

Inhabiting the dream house - Space polarity

__22

2.3

Conclusions about the phenomenological inhabitation

__25

The Augmented Skin making process

__27

3.1 Fabrication Process

__28

3.2

__30

Phenomenological analysis of the Fabrication Process 3.2.1

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The dialectic of inside and outsideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

__30

3.2.2 Pouring as a making process

__33

3.2.3 Kneading as a life giving process.

__35

3.3 Conclusions about the fabrication of Flesh 4

__9

__38 __41

Design proposal 4.1

Concept

__42

4.2

Spatial translation of the flesh, the skeleton and the skin.

__42

4.3

Phenomenological inhabitation of the building.

__43

Conclusions

Report // GAD _RC6// Theodora Maria Moudatsou

__44

Abstract

The involvement between human body and architecture is a field that has been introduced through different approaches like the figural ornamentation and the relationship between parts of the human body with fundamental architectural elements, like the idea of the wall as an extension of the skin. The paper aims for the proposal of inhabitable spaces inspired from the body in order to by embodied by it, as a recursive process, and seeks for the analogies based on the secrecy of human existence. This research requires initially a deep understanding of the anatomy of the human body, like the skeleton and the skin, and its translation to architectural space. Additionally the mysteries and symbolic dimensions of the divine human body need to be explored. Aiming for deeper understanding among the relationship of human body and architecture Marcos Cruz in his PhD â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Inhabitable Flesh of Architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; argues about the relationship between the human flesh and the architectural skin. The engagement of the Augmented Skin project, with Marcos Cruz PhD relies to the historical, phenomenological, and aesthetic concerns as well as material properties and programmatic research of the inhabited Skin. Despite the fact that Marcos Cruz is looking deeper into the body, into the flesh, an abstract yet catalysing truth about its substance, it is necessary to look even deeper, into the inner truth of the body, into its soul. Phenomenology is then used as a methodology to analyse inhabitable spaces, based apart from the physical, to the mental projection of human presence. Phenomenology is based on the primitive instincts of the human. Thus this paper seeks for the emerge of spaces that can be inhabited by the spirit of the human, the dreams, the fears and the symbolic meanings driven from the need to fit its own existence into the universe.

fig.1 The Concept of the design proposal refers to the application of the fabrication as an extreme building process initializing a dialogue among the fundamental elements of architecture and the human body. By extracting human anatomy moments from our design, the wall is thought as an extension of the skin, The supporting elements relate to the bones and the skeleton, and finally the binding process of casting is rather thought as the mediator for the expose of their relationship.

Introduction

Aiming for deeper understanding between the engagement of the human body and architecture, this paper is inspired by the argument of Marcos Cruz in his PhD ‘The Inhabitable Flesh of Architecture’ (2007) which is based on the conceptual and design definition of the contemporary ‘Architectural Flesh’. Relying on historical research, phenomenological approaches and communication as its main programmatic, Architectural Skin becomes a thick embodied Architectural Flesh. For the author ‘Flesh’ extends the meaning of ‘Skin’ which is often misunderstood as a flat thin surface. His thesis wants to put forward a thick embodied flesh by exploring architectural interfaces that are truly inhabitable. Through the historical research about the perception of the body and specially the history of skin in different eras the Augmented Skin project aims to frame the nature, the type and properties of the skin that the project wants to put forward. Furthermore the parallel comparison of the evolution of the archetypes relating with it from the Medieval, to the Bourgeois and the Cyborgian skin demonstrate the strong relationship between the perception of the human body and the space that it inhabits. Additionally the idea of phenomenological inhabitation of the space, as a mean of space inhabitation through both the physical and mental presence of the human, contributes to the establishment of an architectural vocabulary and a fabrication process based on the idea of how the human can inhabit the Architectural Flesh. This vocabulary aims for the materialisation of the limit, the extreme, the osmotic zones of controversial, the abstract and finally the topological fantasy of the flesh.

Historical research of the engagement between Human body and Architecture.

1.1

The structure and the purpose of the historical research.

Marcos Cruz, in his PHD presents a targeted apposition of historical evolution on the main fields that â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Inhabitable Flesh of Architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; relates with. Since his conclusions refer to the contemporary time, it is important to frame the main parameters of his project through their historical context. The research of their historical evolution through different times will allow their re-definition today.

fig.2 Human skin hanging in frame. Anatomia reformata (Leiden, 1651) fig.3 Sir Joshua Reynolds , Lady Charles Spencer, (1766)

First of all he refers to the history of body and figural ornamentation, since ‘architecture can be understood metaphorically as an extension of the body and inversely the body can be identified as an extension of architecture 1 ’. Then according to the history of body, the history of skin is identified. Furthermore, he talks about the evolution of wall as an extension of architectural skin (implying the interface) and the progress of domestic typology, related to the inside of the skin, the body or the flesh. Finally ‘The History of Beauty’ as Umberto eco titled his book, or else our perception through time about what is beautiful and what could be characterized as disgusting can be traced throughout his entire paper. Due to the extent of his research this report will focus on the main points made about the history of body and consequently of skin, since this is the field that the Augmented Skin aims to be related with.

1. ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos Cruz,

Architectural Flesh; Inhabitable Interfaces, p. 159

1.2

Key features of skin in historical terms based on the history of body. From Medieval skin to the Contemporary skin

During Medieval ‘the inside of the body was conceived as an unstructured, osmotic space whose continuous processes remained invisible and their state and form expelled on the surface as disgusting matter 2 ’. The Medieval skin, according to Steven Connor, could be described and visualized as ‘everything and nothing…not itself a part of the body 3 … ’ So the image of the medieval skin is one of a porous and week surface with countless openings and uncertain frontiers in which the border between interior and exterior is exposed to ‘processes of metamorphosis and mutation 4 ’ . Moving to Renaissance and scientific explanation of body mysteries, anatomical studies on the human body expose the operation of it, liberating it from all its mystical and symbolic powers. In Modern Renaissance body, all the parts are separated and categorized according to their functional importance to the whole. Organs such as the brain and the nervous system come first in the hierarchy of importance. Hence during that period skin is characterized as an individual organ with a higher degree of sensitivity. During the period of Bourgeois and early Modernism, body detachment was responsible for the consideration of skin, the outer limit of the body, as a divider and a defend mechanism. The Bourgeois skin thus, was a flat, transparent and sensitive one, separating and protecting the vulnerable inside from the dangerous outside. During 18-19th century the organ of the skin, was also thought as the mirror of the soul, a canvas of the body, reflecting psychological and emotional, social and moral status. The novel of Oscar Wilde ‘Picture of Dorian Gray’ (1907), published in late Bourgeois time, is expressing this detachment to its limits and refers to the consequences of it. However in the current information age where new technologies on communication emerge, the connection of the body with its surrounding physical and cyber world is one of the main priorities. Thus contemporary skin rather than being a barrier between the inside and the outside is thought as a unifier between the body and the external environment. As a result walls expand to Inhabitable Interfaces and the skin becomes again open and porous. The porosity of the contemporary skin should rather be considered as ports (like the plug-in bioports on Neo’s skin in the movie Matrix) for the skin to be plugged into the cyborgian society.

2,4. ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos Cruz, Introduction; Body and Flesh, p. 43,44 3. ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos Cruz, Architectural Flesh, Inhabitable Interfaces, p. 155

fig. 4 Human dissection, 14th century artwork from Anathomia (1345), by anatomist Guido da Vigevano. fig. 5 Trepanation, 14th century artwork from Anathomia (1345) by Italian anatomist Guido da Vigevano. fig. 6-7 Male figure hoilding open the skin of his trunk from Jacopo Berengario da Carpi, Anatomia, Bologna (1521).

fig.8 Deviant Body, Marcos Cruz, (1999)

fig.9 Matrix, Andy and Larry Wachowski, (1999).

1.3

History of domestic typology and the Cultural evolution of the Wall, as extension of the interface.

Body’s complicated substance can express many of the architectural principles, among them the idea of inside and outside, flesh and skin or else space and wall. Thus the body can be considered as an extension of architecture. Previously, body detachment was mentioned. The skin became flat, isolated, detached from its inner flesh, it was thought as a divider. Through body’s and architecture’s metaphorical relationship a detached architecture emerged. The open plan system with a matrix of rooms and multiple connections between them, until the middle of 17th century, as Robin Evans describes, was followed by the Bourgeois home late 18th 19th which ‘aims for privacy, cleanliness, and independence 5 ’. The wall in the Bourgeois house became equally flat and acted as a barrier, both physical and moral, a divider with main function to protect, defend and keep distance. In Modernism, Wall was already an important field to reconfigure both conceptually and technologically. The modern wall became partially unifier in late modernism as it can be noticed in the case of the glass walls of Neutra*. For the contemporary wall Marcos Cruz belief is that it should interact and union rather than just separate, expressing the importance of communication today. Taking everything mentioned above into consideration it becomes clear that the relationship between body and architecture was always very strong. The perception about the role of skin and body was reflected to the architectural wall and space. When skin detached from the body so did the wall from the space. Consequently contemporary skin causes the emergence of a contemporary wall which acts as unifier and allows intimacy and hyper-connection to the user of it. Augmented Skin wants to emphasize the idea of the skin as a unifier of opposing ideas like inside and outside, formation and deformation. It does not imply a detached skin, but rather deals with the idea of skin as an osmotic surface, a negotiating barrier. Therefore Augmented Skin seeks for the grotesque symbolism of the medieval skin and the topological fantasy of it.

5. ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos Cruz,

Architectural Flesh, Inhabitable Interfaces, p. 167

Richard Neutra, United States, 1920.

fig.10-11 Adolf Loss, Moller house, Vienna, 1928-29. fig.12 Frank lloyd wright built in furniture, home and studio oak park fig.13 Le Corbusier, chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp, 1950-1954

The use of Phenomenology as a mean of definition of Interfacial Inhabitation

2.1

The idea of the shelter as the primitive house

The definition of inhabitable spaces inspired by the human body relies apart from the historical observation about the physical engagement of human body with its architectural surroundings, to the investigation of human psychological instincts. Marcos Cruz in his research about ‘Architectural Flesh’ aims to identify what he entitles as ‘Inhabitable Interfaces’. This section of the paper aims to emphasize the importance of phenomenology along the evolution of domestic typology as mentioned by Cruz. It could then be said that most of the cases use the emotional and dream projection of the human in order to truly inhabit the interfaces (as an extension of Wall), Raums* (as the appropriate definition of space), and environments. As he quotes architect Juhani Pallasmaa suggests ‘the ever-present memories of our childhood house are the way to explicate the perception and engagement of body in space 6 ’. And Bachelard reinforces this by adding that ‘for a child the house is its first universe 7 ’. According to Antony Vidler, these memories of shelter inhabitation can be traced far behind to the ‘…maternal shelters … the ‘cavities of vaginal’ forms … 8 ’. Frank Lloyd Wright’s use of built-in furniture, points out the depth of the private wall inhabitation 9 . His typological experiment incorporates the wall with the furniture into a built-in or even into a built-along, embedded with wardrobes, drawers, and other domestic appliances. As Bachelard describes, ‘…Wardrobes with their shelves, desks with their drawers, and chests with their false bottoms are veritable organs of the secret psychological life. They are hybrid objects, subject objects; they have a quality of intimacy… 10 ’. Human body is then physically engaged with the wall in a loose way implying intimacy inside the interfacial inhabitation.

6-8-7-9. ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos Cruz, Architectural Flesh, Inhabitable Interfaces, p. 157, 192,187 10. ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos Cruz, Neo-Biological Flesh; Synthetic Neoplasms, p. 193

*Raum: is a German word which implies a space, a room where the inner with what surrounds it are considered as wholeness. As he mentions his research aims to ‘recognise different forms of interfacial inhabitation and to question the relationship between the body and the walls within the Raum we inhabit’.

2.2

Inhabiting the dream house - Space polarity

Another phenomenological practise on, a public this time, wall inhabitation can be identified in The Spirituals Walls of Ronchamp* based on the idea of secrecy. The wide programmatic variety, embedded in the walls, including structure, circulation and light, remains hidden from the inhabitant, challenging him to gradually rediscover it. In Moore’s case what Marcos Cruz names as Climbing-The-Castle-Phenomenon, is based on the excessive use of stairs and platforms in the design, and it refers to our childhood fantasies of climbing and discovering. Furthermore the Inhabitable Cones in Jorn Utzon Museum refer to cosmic roots, they are walls inside the earth, Cave –like exhibition cones 11 . Referring thus equally to the idea of the cave as a shelter and the dream of inhabiting the rock . Bachelard in his book ‘The Poetics of Space’ (1994) devotes a big entity to describe the polarity inside the dream house ‘from Cellar to Garret’ 12 and the use of stairs for their connection. All the above practises then; hiding, discovering, climbing, and bury in the earth emphasize the polarity inside the dream house and consequently the inhabitation through the human dream projection.

11. ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos Cruz, Architectural Flesh, Inhabitable Interfaces, p. 286

12. ‘The Poetics of Space’, Gaston Bachelard, the house ‘from Cellar to Garret p .3 20

fig.14-16 Charles W. Moore Sea Ranch Condominium, California, 1964-1965. fig. 17 Jorn Utzon, Asger Jorn Museum, Silkeborg, 1963.

fig. 18 Le Corbusier, chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp, 1950-1954

2.3

Conclusions about the phenomenological inhabitation

Despite the fact that phenomenology suggests an even deeper inhabitation through what is projected by the human, and assumes a double inhabitation from both body and mind, something close to Marcos Cruz interests, he remains sceptical about the adaptation of a phenomenological use of space. As he mentions: ‘ I do not want to fall into the common trap of phenomenological nostalgia 13 .’ In order to contradict Bachelard and reinforce his personal belief, that the programmatic interests of Architectural Flesh cannot be limited to those of shelter, protection, and enclosure, he mentions Baudrillard’s dissertation on the impact of communication in our society 14 . Marcos Cruz describes Bachelard’s approach as ‘out-dated’ 15 for the modern society. This can be characterized as paradox. How can phenomenology, based on the only unique truth that remains unchanged throughout the entire history, the one of our existence, update? Marcos Cruz explanation is that, communication is engaged with modern architecture to such an extent that Bachelard’s approach, based almost exclusively to the psychological projection since our childhood, is inadequate and limited to protective function, and small nest like conditions. As a conclusion it could be said that Marcos Cruz is rather looking for a new phenomenological approach. Based not on our primitive instincts when we were introduced to the universe for the first time, but instead, when we were introduced to the new technological and cyber universe of communication. However this phenomenological approach cannot be separated from that of our existence. Since ‘being’ will always constitute the basic, primitive function, a new programmatic like communication can only be added to it. From another point of view the importance of communication for the contemporary society may be the only programmatic that could be compared with the importance of our primitive existence, since in current time communication may cause ‘being’ in multiple levels, ‘being’ in a physical and a virtual level, thus an augmented state of being. However this paper attempts to identify in the most basic and primitive way what the human existence consists of and rethink the spaces that may host it as well how the complex properties of it could be materialized. Therefore the phenomenological definitions that the paper follows relate more with what Bachelard refers into his book the ‘Poetics of Space’ rather than the concerns of Cruz about the role of the body in the cyborgian society.

13,14,15 ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos Cruz, Architectural Flesh, Inhabitable Interfaces, p. 194,195

Augmented Skin

3 The Augmented Skin making process

The Augmented Skin project concentrates on the establishment of a fabrication process. The conceptual language of the process is inspired by the human body. The skeleton the skin and the flesh are translated through the properties of the solid the elastic and the mediator. Their in-between interaction materialises the limits of the Grotesque skin and the formless form of the flesh. Spaces embodied with symbolism and phenomenological properties emerge.

fig.19 Prototype Object, detail of the pavillion design.

3.1 Fabrication Process

The initial research about the fabrication of the Augmented Skin was based on casting techniques inside flexible moulds. More specifically, a system based on the properties of three different material parts and the negotiation among them was introduced. The conceptual language refers to the solid the elastic and the mediator, which for the purposes of the fabrication translate into wood skeleton components, elastic fabric or latex membranes and cement casting processes. Based on the high level of dependency among the materials, as well as the unpredictable behaviour of them, a form finding research is initialized. The three initially separated parts negotiate under the forces of tension and deformation in such a way, that every time they deform and form unique substances where the limits of them cannot be distinguish but equally exist. Among the three parts of the system, Skin (Augmented Skin) stands out as the most characterizing limit. The limit between what is inside and what is outside, what hides underneath and what is expelling outside as a form. Augmented Skin relates to the Grotesque medieval Skin. The concept of the fabrication is based on the idea of a constrained skin as a porous limit, an osmotic area where all the three parts negotiate around the wider problematic about the dialectic of inside and outside.

fig. 20 Prototype, Skin component

fig. 21 Diagram about the levels of constrain: Stick skeleton -Tension, Stiching - Material flow constrain, Coating - Fabric constrain

fig. 22 Diagram: The three main parts of the system , membrane, sticks, and plaster in continuous negotiation.

3.2

Phenomenological analysis of the Fabrication Process

The dialectic of inside and outside apart from being one of the most fundamental concepts of the project also introduces the use of phenomenology as a methodological way to analyse and research the inhabitable properties of the fabrication process in relation to the inner truth of the human body. Throughout Marcos Cruz research phenomenology is often used in order to explain and support the engagement of body in architecture based on mental projection. His analysis, around the aesthetics of disgust, refers’ to the ideas of pouring as a making process and kneading as a life-giving process. The Augmented Skin inspired from this approach expands’ its concerns around the polarity of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ to matters of ‘infolding’ and ‘oufolding’ 16 aiming for the materialization of them.

3.2.1

‘The dialectic of inside and outside’

According to Bachelard the geometrical expression of the dialectics of outside and inside is supported by pure geometrism, where the limits of the shape are also boundaries. Trying to approach the impact of these two space descriptions into the human imagination we can notice that the ‘inside is concrete while the outside vast… between them appears asymmetry’ 17 . The creation of the initial component, for the Augmented Skin project, was based on the generation of a negotiating system out of three parts, outside (elastic membrane), inside (constrain structural skeleton) and in-between (cement), negotiating in such a way that inside and in-between reflects to outside. As a result the vast outside has always a characterizing point of reference resulting thus to become more specific, while concrete inside becomes unlimited. As mentioned in Marcos Cruz research, Elkins reinforces the idea that traditional polarity between inside and outside is absolute 18 . Thus the existence of ‘infoldings’ and ‘outfoldings’ , or else ‘pockets’ as Elkins characterizes them, can dramatize the polarity even more and transform the flat, detached Bourgeois skin into, as described by Marcos Cruz , ‘a container of places, a Raum of ‘topological fantasies’, in other words a Flesh’ 19 .

17 . ‘The Poetics of Space’, Gaston Bachelard, the dialectics

of Outside and Inside p 240

16,18,19. ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos

Cruz, Neo-Biological Flesh; Synthetic Neoplasms, p. 319

fig. 23 Digital design. Constrain skeleton and membrane. Research on the constrained generation of the form.

fig. 24 Prototype variations of Deformation according to the amount of material deposition.

3.2.2

Pouring as a making process

fig.25 Roxy Paine, physical Model

fig. 26 Prototype Study on constrained and deformed the membrane.

fig.27 Digital design. Deformed mesh.

Pouring as a making process is described in Bourgeois’ work under the section the ‘aesthetics of disgust’ (). Without the use of a framework, lacks geometric control and implies the creation of a formless form, with a fleshy effect as a result of the control of the material flow with hand gestures 20 . The nature of pouring is explored, among others by the American Artist Roxy Paine, as ‘a way to articulate formless and randomness as part of a new aesthetic ’ 21 . In comparison with the lack of framework as described in Bourgeois’ art, the project emphasizes the use of it. However it is not an outside framework but instead an inside constrain skeleton that is used to control the pouring as a method, become part of the unpredictable nature of the material and emphasise it even more.

20-21. ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos Cruz,

Neo-Biological Flesh; Synthetic Neoplasms, p. 301

fig. 28 Prototype. After casting and deformation of the soft membranes the seperated components interlock perfectly with each other. Their combination is giving a unique perfect mach.

fig. 29 Diagram. Unique connection lines between the components, after deformation.

Furthermore, the pouring of cement in the fabrication process of the Augmented Skin is the crucial factor that causes the emerge of the final form. The initially separated components deform and form unique interlocking relationships among them. However casting is what at the same time causes the dynamic of the negotiating behaviour of the system to stabilize. The three parts’ system is alive while all the parts of it interact, however the time of their interaction is equal to the time of the casting. After the cement has been solidified the system is no longer interacting is has been frozen. The time of its interaction relates to the time of the human life. The project suggests the proposal of a monumental time, the memory of what used to be alive. Close to Arthur Schopenhauer observation about temporal time ‘What has been exists no more; and exists just as little as that which has never been...’ 22 , the negotiating character of the system is emphasized by underlying the temporal moment of its creation into a monumental moment of its death. The inhabitant of the space is challenged to give life with its presence into a body that came to life while it was dying. Birth, life, death consist parameters for the fabrication process and challenge the inhabitant to project his fears or wishes through it. Therefore it could be said that for the project Pouring as a making process relates with the framework of material constrains, causes deformations and interlocking relationships as well as implies symbolic time. It is then the phenomenological description of Connor about kneading that extends the concept of pouring, and helps the making process of the sitting object, the first one to one prototype of the project to be better described.

3.2.3

Kneading as a life giving process.

Connor describes kneading as a kind of ‘life-giving process’ 23 . ‘The action of kneading or moulding does not has the definition of form as its aim, but rather the creation of a vital compound….The aim of kneading is to blend together the joined and dis-joined…The result is not mere mixture, but a tonic mass, full of tensile potential’ 24 . Thus the poured concrete is kneaded with the membrane and the constrain skeleton under the forces of gravity. Furthermore the components are kneaded in a double sense, first as individuals following their making process, but also between them, and eventually as a whole. The prototype of the sitting object was based on the idea of kneading individual strand components into the unique substance of a chair. When the strand components knead among them they become unique matches for each other. According to Tom Robbins in his book ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ (1999) this could be described as an erotic action, based on the idea of erotic that matching items, like the key and the hole emerge. According to their relationship the final form is achieved.

22. ‘TThe emptiness of existence’, Arthur Schopenhauer,

p.60.

23-24. ‘The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture’, Marcos Cruz,

Neo-Biological Flesh; Synthetic Neoplasms, p. 329, p.330

fig. 30 Prototype. Even though the skeleton of the structure is solid, the flexible membrane as well as the combination of the stick components along the strand allow them to rotate, bend and twist.

fig. 31 Prototype. Sitting Object.

3.3

Conclusions about the fabrication of Flesh

It could be argued that for the Augmented Skin project the idea of constrain is equally important with that of the uncontrolled pouring. The importance of skin constrain is not mentioned by Marcos Cruz, maybe because the common idea of constrain, as an outer framework restricting the skin, is against his research towards a formless form of flesh. However the Augmented Skin project deals with the idea of an extremely constrained skin. Constrain refers not only to the skeleton but also to the properties of membrane coating, the viscosity of the pouring material as well as the external restrictions like the gravity. Furthermore the Augmented skin fabrication research deals with the materialization of the flesh through the establishment of a controversial negotiating material system, which is aiming to materialize the limit and the osmotic areas of deformation. In Marcos Cruz research towards the material approach of the flesh he identifies many properties in the application of latex material. The thickness of it, the aesthetic of disgust around its yellowish colour and the effect of translucency are some of the reasons why for Cruz latex implies an elastic material with inhabitable qualities referring to the flesh. In his project in wall creatures (1999) he attempts to abolish or blend the limits between the architectural and human flesh. The latex is embodied by the body, but still the material of latex can be read as a separated material layer. The Augmented Skin does not use the material system in order to mimic the properties of the human flesh but instead it establishes a negotiating system that will materialize through its controversial properties the fact that flesh is presence but in the same time absence, remains hidden under the skin, the form of it may expel sometimes from openings of the skin but there is never a specific form, a certain boundary for the flesh. Flesh is always in relation with its outer limit the human skin and together they form the substance of the body. Therefore in comparison with Cruz approach, to uncover and inhabit the flesh, the Augmented Skin project attempts to emphasize the constrains of the skin and a system where the presence of the flesh will occur as consequence of its high dependence from the skin and the skeleton, or else the human body.

fig. 32 A Garden of Vessels 2002 marcosandmarjan Competition entry for the New Tomihiro Museum, Azuma Japan.

fig. 33 In-Wall Creatures Research Project - 1998 Marcos Cruz Performance in latex wall, Bartlett School of Architecture

4 Design proposal

fig.34 Top View, Digital Model.

4.1

Concept

In the design proposal the process of the fabrication is applied as an extreme building process. The main concept of the project is to demonstrate the involvement between human body and architecture by initializing a dialogue among the fundamental elements of architecture and the human body. The wall is thought as an extension of the skin, the supporting elements relate to the bones and the skeleton, and finally the binding process of casting is rather thought as the mediator that exposes their relationship. Furthermore aiming to design spaces inspired from the human body a deeper understanding about the mental existence of the body is attempted leading to the proposal of spaces designed in order to be inhabited by the dream projection and the fantasy.

4.2

Spatial translation of the flesh, the skeleton and the skin.

Along the ruins of Saint Francis dam in San Francisco canyon a landscape museum about the dam and its collapse is purposed. The design logic of the flesh, the strand and the skin translate into different spatial conditions of the museum while the inhabitant of the building is in a continuous transition from enclosed, to semi open and open spaces. The enclosed spaces refer to the cluster the biggest inhabitable space in a dome shape were all the design logics the skin, the strand and the flesh meet together. This curved cave like space is the flesh of the building, the extreme moment of negotiation among the process and the existing conditions of the site. It is the space where all the main functions of the building are concentrated. The semi open tubular spaces are mainly consisting out of strands. The strands determine the spine of the structure and the load of the weight in the junction points between the clusters. These spaces may host functions along them like exhibition spaces as well as most of the core functions of the building like the circulation, while they offer the opportunity to the inhabitant to explore them as objects inside and outside of them, he can examine and relate with them. Finally in the fragmented open condition spaces of the museum the idea of the skin is more dominant. The skin is deformed, bended and twisted into a multilayer condition of a deep surface. The surface reveals its layers and creates inhabitable vessels along it where the visitor of the building can sit, walk and watch the view.

4.3

fig.35 Inside View, Digital Model

Phenomenological inhabitation of the building.

Apart from the analogy of the bone, the skin and the flesh into spatial inhabitable spaces for the body the project equally aims for the inhabitation of these spaces through the mental projection of the human. The curved walls, the domes, the extremely deformed flesh like skins, the sharp edges, the corners, and the erotically interlocking deformed bodies are challenging the inhabitant for a phenomenological inhabitation of the space in between wall surface conditions, semi open tubular spaces or enclosed dome clusters. Using the idea of the negotiation between different materials to the extreme the project aims to become a place of fantasy around the matters of birth, life, death, erotic, protection and fear in order to challenge the inhabitants to rethink how they can place their own existence in the universe, how they can inhabit the space. The user of the building is following a narrative route along the museum begging from the idea of birth, inside the big dome, then to life and death around and inside the deformed bodies, through claustrophobic narrow spaces and gradually he is lead to the open spaces, the observatory, to the feeling of catharsis. Located in an isolated canyon on top of the ruins of a previous megastructure the Augmented Skin structure hopes for the emerge of the question of how the human designs the spaces to inhabit and suggests to use the edge of the limit as a design method and not as boundaries to design the spaces in-between the limits. What is presence becomes abstract, what is permanent is also temporary, thus a reality that fits into the perception of the human existence as an osmotic limit of matters like time, life and death.

Conclusions

Above the close relationship among the perception of the human body and architectural evolution of domestic typology was analysed. One of the most characterising moments of this relationship was the period of Bourgeois, during which the skin was understood as a flat thin divider, leading to a detached flat wall. Instead the contemporary architectural flesh, that Marcos Cruz describes, refers to a thick embodied skin that acts as a unifier between the body and its architectural and environmental surroundings. Relating with Marcos Cruz research the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Augmented Skinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; project defines the nature of the skin which is used. Taking into consideration the perception and role of skin in different times, it could be said that the skin of the project aims for an extremely constrained and thin skin that relates with the properties of Medieval skin. This skin also acts as a unifier based on the perception of becoming the place where different processes meet together and negotiate. It is porous and grotesque, since the inside process of its matter is expressed on its surface to such an extent that the skin cannot be separated from its inside.

fig.36 Digital model, inside view.The enclosed dome of the birth.

fig. 37 Digital model, inside view. The open view moment of katharsis.

It could rather been thought as the crucial limit of its flesh. The project does not focus on a material-wise analogy of its three part’s system with the skin the flesh and the bone of it. Instead the fabrication process explores new inhabitable properties through the contradicting aspects of its materialisation. The phenomenological inhabitation of the deformed bodies of the Augmented Skin prototypes, relies at their constant interaction, the extreme limits, the deformation, the osmotic surface of the skin, the constrained flesh, the interlocking behaviour, the perception about time between their interaction, what expels out and what remains hidden. The design proposal materialises in different inhabitable conditions the idea of the negotiation that takes part on the limit. On the crucial limit of the skin a dramatic polarity between the dialectic of inside and outside is achieved. That is result of constant repetition of ‘infoldings’ and ‘outfoldings’, enclosure and reveal, formation and deformation, time, life and death that take place. The Augmented Skin refers to the materialization of these crucial limits therefore the inhabitant of the building is challenged for a phenomenological inhabitation of the flesh.

fig.38 Digital model, masterplan top view.

fig.39 Digital model, section.

fig.40 Digital model, perspective section.

Bartllet School of Architecture

2013-14

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

THESIS Cruz, Marcos, The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture, PhD in Architecture, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, 2007

BOOKS Bachelard, Gaston, The Poetics of Space, Beacon Press, Boston, 1994(first published in French under the title La poetique de l’espace, Presses Universitaires de France, 1958). Baudrillard, Jean, The Ecstasy of Communication, in Hal Foster (ed.), The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on Postmodern Culture, The New Press, New York, 1998. Connor, Steven, The Book of Skin, Reaktion Books, London, 2004. Elkins, James, Pictures of the Body. Pain and Metamorphosis, Stanford University Press, Stanford California, 1999. Evans, Robin, The Projective Cast. Architecture and its Three Geometries, The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts and London, 1995. EvansA, Robin, Translations from Drawing to Building and other Essays, AA Documents 2, Architectural Association London, 1997. Lynn, Greg, Folds, Bodies & Blobs Collected Essays, La Lettre Volee (Book-by-Architects), Brussels, 1998. Pallasmaa, Juhani, The Eyes of the Skin. Architecture and the Sences, Academy Editions, London, 1996. Robbins, Tom, Dance of the seven veils, Aiolos, Athens, 1999. Schopenhauer, Arthur, Essays of Schopenhauer,The emptiness of existence, Penguin Books, London, 1979. Sigmund, Freud, The Unfamiliar,

(ΤΟ ΑΝΟΙΚΕΙΟ),

Plethron, Athens, 2009.

Vidler, Antony, Wraped Space. Art, Architecture, and Anxiety in Modern Culture, The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts 2000. Wilde , Oscar, The Portrait Of Dorian Gray, Metaixmio, Athens, 2006.

LINKS http://www.dezeen.com http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/schopenhauer/schopenhauer-8.pdf

Report // GAD _RC6// Theodora Maria Moudatsou

Bartllet School of Architecture

2013-14

MArch GAD Bartlett School of Architecture 2014 University College London

Report THEODORA MARIA MOUDATSOU

RC 6 _ Daniel Widrig

Soomeen Hahm Stefan Bassing Report Tutor: David Scott

Report // GAD _RC6// Theodora Maria Moudatsou

Bartllet School of Architecture

2013-14

Report // GAD _RC6// Theodora Maria Moudatsou

Bartllet School of Architecture

2013-14