NARRATIVE CITIES A Story of the Ephemeral and the Insidious
By Androniki Karambasis
Thank you, Mom and Dad, always and forever.
A master’s research project presented to the Graduate School of Architecture and Community Design at the University of South Florida in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master’s of Architecture. M AY 2 0 1 8
THESIS CHAIR
N A N C Y S A N D E RS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ARCHITECTURE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA SACD
THESIS COMMITTEE
K R I ST I E N R I N G ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ARCHITECTURE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA SACD
ST E V E CO O K E ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ARCHITECTURE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA SACD
JEET SING PRINCIPLE DESIGNER THE BECK GROUP
BY A N D R O N I K I KA RA M B A S I S
Cover / Generated as a composite diagram of Mauerpark and Shibuya Crossing, the map seeks to illustrate an ongoing theme of fluidity and ambiguity present in the study of urban typology
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prelude
Invisible Cities
10
1 Berlin, Germany
14
Mauerpark
20
Ghost Stations
24
2 Tokyo, Japan
30
Shibuya Crossing Nomadic-Migratory Movement
34 40
Interlude
44
The Promenade
The Archetype
56
3 Venice, Italy
66
4 La Carnevale
74
INTRODUCTION
A city is a collection of narratives which, regardless of their differences, contribute to the current condition. These narratives range in time and scale, sometimes leading as the individual, the object, or the collective, perhaps even crossing invisible boundaries as a product of all three. The urban condition is the result of these narratives experienced as a figurative palimpsest, leaving traces of the past into a context of the present. The thesis begins with the exploration of two distinct cities—Tokyo and Berlin, specifically, the neighborhoods of Shibuya Crossing and Mauerpark. Berlin is personified as that of the sinister and the hidden. It is a city home to some of Europe’s darkest histories, somewhat frozen in its past, never letting itself forget the roots of its scars. As Berlin is turned monumental with its walls and memorials, Tokyo is the adverse presence, constantly in a state of flux and tied by no singular history. It is with these opposing forces that two urban personalities are manifested, allowing for their pasts to be experienced in the present, and for a dialogue between the two to be spectated. Treating Shibuya and Mauerpark as characters, urban typology as the stage, and promenade as the site, the thesis stitches the parts with the introduction of plot, thus allowing for the inception of ‘LA CARNAVALE’— a story of the urban environment, the narratives that comprise it, and the theory of architecture as a vehicle of storytelling.
10
PRELUDE Invisible Cities
11
Fig. 01
PRECEDENT #01 Italo Calvino Published in 1972 by Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities delves into the imagination of famous explorer, Marco Polo, and his travels as a merchant of Kublai Khan. Depicted as a novel-long episode of poetry and travel, the story circles itself on the exchange between the explorer and emperor, shifting between moments of dialogue and prose. While Marco Polo relays tales of wild characters and distinct qualities, spanning an exploration of fifty-five cities, overarching narratives repeat as a thematic datum. The novel’s break down is neither random nor arbitrary, but discreetly purposeful in its juxtaposed pace of dialogue and prose. The story is fantastic and formal, careful to avoid any peg of predictability while simultaneously asking the same truistic question present since human consciousness: what is the purpose of life’s journey? While the cities Marco Polo speaks of are fictitious in themselves, the themes that make them are not. Invisible Cities is a poetic travelogue that cannot be contained to a defined motif. It is a commentary on the cycle and struggle of power structures, utopian ideals, and the inevitability that is the human condition. Throughout the thesis, Invisible Cities will serve as a narrative precedent, guiding future interpretations of urban narratives, specifying a focus on categorized themes and structure. The thesis will use Invisible Cities to question the possibilities of the city, the individuals that comprise it, and the ability of urban analysis to generate comprehensive design.
“The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.” — Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
14
CHAPTER 1 Berlin, Germany
15
10/18/2016 08:18 PM
Fig. 02
We arrived in Berlin about three days ago (give or take a few time zone differences). The city is really quite beautiful, but I can’t help but feel a certain lingering presence. There is a shadow of the past I can’t quite shake. Every so often the presence reveals itself as a constructed object—a wall ridden in graffiti, a memorial of historic intention, a museum of ugly truths. Today, we visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. From the underground S Bahn to the dreary streets of the city, we turned a corner and there it was, 2,711 concrete boxes rooted under a graying German sky (Fig. 02). Trees extend the last of their green hues over cold sidewalks. Parks are full and the laughter is alive. Berlin is a city home to Europe’s darkest histories and it lives presently with a sort of solemn optimism. Tomorrow, we’re heading to Mauerpark in Prenzlauer Berg. The weather is supposed to clear up. It should be a beautiful day for a walk through the park. The story of Mauerpark is actually quite interesting.
1877-2009
MAUERPARK TIMELINE
1939
World War II begins
1877
Berlin Nordbahnhof opens
* Federal Republic of Germany
1949
The FRG* is established
1989
The Berlin Wall falls
1961
Construction on the Berlin Wall begins
1994
2009
Bearpit Karaoke is born
Mauerpark is re-established as a public space
M2
M1
U8
52° 32′ 37″ N , 1 3 ° 2 4 ′ 1 2 ″ E
Fig. 03
20
M1
Fig. 04 MAUERPARK
The site of the Old Nordbanhof turned freight yard in the 20th C. 1946 saw the end of the site as a rail station for good. Split between Soviet and French sectors, the area surrounding Mauerpark was stamped by Berlin’s political divide. In 1989, efforts to restore the land into a public park grew, attributing to what stands today: a linear park home to Bearpit Karaoke and Flohmarkt.
M2
Fig. 05 BERLINER MAUER
Erected in 1961, and constructed by the German Democratic Republic, the wall represented Berlin’s political and ideological divide. More than a single layer, the final evolution of the wall was comprised of two concrete walls–the “Death Strip” boundaries–wire mesh fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, and 300 scattered watch towers. Intended to keep West Berliners out, the wall became of symbol of Orwellian dystopia–a ‘keeping in’ rather than a ‘keeping out’ of social control.
U8
Fig. 06 U-BAHN LINIE 8
One of three below ground rail lines made inaccessible during Berlin’s divide. The term “ghost station” was coined to describe this phenomena of embedding and severing. Having the ability to cross the Berlin Wall, potentially allowing East Berliners to flee East Berlin, these stations were abandoned, patrolled, and even infilled to secure the GDR’s watch over its citizens. The fall of the Berlin Wall saw the re-integration of these lines into Berlin’s transit loop.
21
Fig. 07 Mauerpark Composite Diagram
MAUERPARK SITE DIAGRAM
Fig. 07 seeks to compress Mauerpark’s history into a singular, visual graphic. The diagram is marked by important moments, events, and urban conditions within the surrounding area of the linear park. Means of notating and illustrating were used as an excavation tool with the intent to uncover stories and narratives of Mauerpark otherwise unseen. The diagram illustrates the boundary and direction of the Berlin Wall as two dark lines bisecting varied line weight of zones and activity. The U8 line is expressed as a dashed axis in which its Bernauer stop is marked as a solid blue square. The subway stop is clearly positioned within the boundaries of the Berlin Wall. It is through this diagram that the phenomena of the ‘ghost station’ is discovered and understood as a historic identity nearly forgotten in today’s age. Upon excavating the hidden narrative, I decided to curtail the analysis of Mauerpark in favor of the story of Berlin’s abandoned rail lines. The story of the ghost station presented itself as an artifact of rich possibility. Not only was the phenomena discovered by chance, but proved to yield an investigation of incredible resonance, speaking of a tone that was felt personally in my travels, though without clear definition. The story of Berlin’s ghost stations defined this ambiguous presence, ultimately leading to a personality I would assign, objectify, and criticize.
Fig. 08 Mauerpark Notation
Fig. 09 Mauerpark Collage
U8
THE PHENOMENA OF THE GHOST STATION
During the life of the Berlin Wall, between the years 1961 and 1989, the city’s underground system of transit lines was severed into parts by the political divide. Most rail lines crossing party sectors were rendered obsolete, becoming fully restricted and supervised with the construction of the wall. Some lines were entirely restricted to one side of the wall while others were divided between the ends, allowing for passengers to float between the borders while inside rail carts. Three prominent rail lines crossed the boundaries of the Berlin Wall, theoretically transferring passengers past the wall. 1 The U8 and U9 of the U-Bahn and Nord-Sud Tunnel of the S-Bahn were the lines of the Cold War phenomena labeled ghost stations. Frozen in time, inaccessible, and highly alarmed, these abandoned platforms offered East Berliners a glimpse into the past of a pre-World War II era. This underground extension of the Berlin Wall illustrated Berlin’s divide as more than between the east and the west, but above and below ground as well. After the fall of the wall in 1989, most of Berlin’s ghost stations were re-integrated into a city-wide system of transit, undergoing massive phases of restoration. To this day, the era of the ghost station has disappeared entirely, surviving only in the unspoken memories of those who lived it.
Fig. 10 Gated subway entrance.
24
1 In the case of Nordbahnhof, it was the lines S1 and S2 (now also S25) running roughly south-west to north-east, entering East Berlin territory at Potsdamer Platz and re-emerging on the Western side beyond Nordbahnhof. Thus Nordbahnhof was in the doubly sensitive special category of ghost station and border station. Peter Hohenhaus, Nordbahnhof-Ghost Station Exhibit, darktourism.com
Fig. 11 GDR soldiers guarding Potzdamer Platz ghost station.
Fig. 12 Walled in subway tunnel.
25
BEFORE
Fig. 13
POTSDAMER PLATZ, 1963
AFTER
Fig. 14
POTSDAMER PLATZ, 2013
INSIDIOUS CHANNELS
IN·SID·I·OUS adjective
1. proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects. 2. to occupy from within The model eliminates the figure ground of Mauerpark entirely to allow for the making of a porous, abstract construct as a way of illustrating the excavation of the narrative. Three important features mark the layers of the model: the Berlin Wall, the descent below ground, and the separation of two forms of activity. Amongst the many lines that passed between east and west Berlin, one of the largest stations, Friedrichstrasse, continued to operate as a sort of transfer station. In fact, a constructed wall separated east and west passengers within this station (with west Berliners allowed to transfer via visa). This underground extension of the Berlin Wall illustrated the divide within the city as more than between the east and west, but above and below as well. With this in mind, the concept of duality serves as a main focus for the model. Berlin’s political divide, much like the ghost stations, was insidious in itself. It did not end or start at one point, but spread throughout the city, both physically and emotionally. The model seeks to evoke this sensation. As one descends into the underground station they are met with a decision: to veer left into the regular activity of the station or veer right into the insidious spaces of the model. A singular white plane separates this decision, symbolizing the impact of the wall as if it were to be experienced today. Once removed from the present, the individual is confined to concrete nodes intended to facilitate internal reflection. Small reliefs in the form of apertures and thresholds allow the individual to view slivers of a world they are not part of. The series of spaces express the notion of being both embedded in and severed from the context—an illustration of the city’s duality during the height of the Berlin Wall.
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
30
CHAPTER 2 Tokyo, Japan
31
3/4/2017 01:47 PM
Fig. 17
Turns out, I really love ramen. We had it again today for lunch. I think by the end of this trip I’ll be 90% noodles, 10% water. Our day was mostly filled with a tour of Omotesando, one of the many ‘architectural showcases’ of Tokyo. As great as it was to see the works of Ando, Ito, and SANAA along the tree-lined avenue, I think I’m sick of seeing so many uppity boutiques. What I’m really craving is an immersion into the Japanese nightlife. I can’t help but replay scenes from Lost in Translation over and over in my mind. By the end of the tour we should be close to Shibuya Crossing. I want see that walking dinosaur Scarlet Johansson sees projected in the crossing. I didn’t know it then, but I think that scene perfectly highlights how strange this city truly is. I’m immersed in neon and color. People move so quickly around here. There is so much activity, so much to sense and touch, I think my neck might be hurting a little from it all. But I do love it here.
X1 X2
Y
35° 39′ 30″ N , 139 ° 4 2 ′ 5 ″ E
Fig. 18
34
X1
Fig. 19 SHIBUYA CROSSING
Argued to be one of the busiest intersections in the world, the crossing is known as a “scramble” cross, halting all vehicle traffic and allowing pedestrians to pass through in every directions. During peak hours upwards of 3,000 people cross the Tokyo intersection. Shibuya Crossing is a major connector between Ometesando and Shinjuku— two of Tokyo’s busiest commercial districts.
X
2
Fig. 20 SHIBUYA STATION
The fourth busiest rail station in Tokyo, Shibuya Station is a main arterial for the JR East lines, private Tokyu lines, and the Tokyo Metro subways. The station’s Hachiko exit is one of Shibuya’s most popular meeting spots, paying homage to the beloved Akita of the same name, who became a Japanese icon for loyalty and trust. Hachiko plaza introduces the commuter to Shibuya’s vibrancy with immediate commercial lighting and advertising.
Y
(1885)
(1903)
(1919)
(1925)
Fig. 21 YAMANOTE LINE
As one of the two JR East lines the Yamanote line loops entirely through Tokyo’s urban core. It reaches major districts such as Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro. An average of 1.1 million people depend on the Yamanote line—a number once double the amount until the introduction of the new Tokyo Metro lines. Because of its connection to all of Tokyo’s major hubs, the Yamanote line once reached over 250% capacity. As of 2016, the busiest section of the line runs at 167% capacity.
35
X1
THE PHENOMENA OF SHIBUYA CROSSING
You walk through a funnel of densely organized activity. Shoppers, commuters, residents, tourists, and people in between join you in the cycle of movement. You don’t know these people and they don’t know you. Yet unbeknownst to you, you share a special relationship with the strangers around you. From the compact and narrow, together you step into a world of clear opposition. Shibuya Crossing halts your movement, confuses your senses, and carries you into a synchronized dance with thousands of strangers. With as little effort as possible, Shibuya Crossing choreographs the chaos between the pedestrian and the vehicle. It is a moment in Tokyo full of deeply rooted infrastructure and concrete, yet wildly fleeting and impermanent despite its material suggestions. It is the flame ignited by accident, gone as quickly as it arrives. You move as a crowd and can’t help but feel a wave of insignificance, moving without direction but under the guide of the masses. You are not striated lines and markers, but movement so smooth you think you can walk right through the surrounding storefronts. 2 No more than thirty seconds later, the crossing clears, stoplights turn green, and a new dance performs in the wake of your presence. Shibuya Crossing is the equivalent to captured light, exposed long enough to turn subjects into traces. It is the birth place of the ephemeral condition.
Fig. 22
Fig. 23
2 The smooth and the striated are philosophical terms described as antagonistic interpretations of territory. Smooth space is that of the non-civilized, free of hierarchy and control. Oppositely, striated space is that of the settled institution, defined by conformity and rules. The terms carry parallel synonyms, symbolic to that of the War Machine and State, the nomad and migrant, and the aborescence and rhizome. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus
Fig. 24
Fig. 25
Fig. 26 Shibuya Composite Diagram
SHIBUYA SITE DIAGRAM
Comprised of two layers of mylar, Shibuya Composite (fig. 26) explores the relationship of the pedestrian and the constructs surrounding them, whether experienced as a destination or thoroughfare. The diagram seeks to embellish and foresee the possibilities of Shibuya Crossing’s endless pursuits. The first layer of the site diagram (fig. 27) marks a broad pedestrian-dominant zone as a bold, black outline. From there, all relevant commercial spaces around the area are denoted as blue triangles or red rectangles, distinguishing between eateries and retail spaces respectively. As a means of narrative fabrication, lines of ink connect relationships between the marked built spaces, allowing for the imaginative procession to be visually realized. While the lines across the page are largely fictional, my own experience through the crossing is also used as an experiential guideline. The web of lines expresses the rapidity surrounding Shibuya Crossing, becoming most dense within the boundary of the crossing itself. The second layer of the diagram (fig. 28) converts the 2D map of Shibuya Crossing into an axonometric drawing. Large commercial complexes immediately surrounding the crossing stand darker than the contextual buildings. Forms are selectively extruded to emphasize certain axises and building types. The axonometric serves to further illustrate the density of the area and the distinctive quality of Tokyo’s interstitial spaces.
Fig. 27 Shibuya Web
Fig. 28 Shibuya Form
NOMADIC-MIGRATORY MOVEMENT
Upon completing layers one and two of the diagram, the process of analysis lulled into a corner of uncertainty. Deciding to take a step back, I referred to a collection of notes taken during a summer-long reading of Invisible Cities, re-establishing the travelog’s purpose in my thesis: a guideline for interpretations of the urban narrative. It was through the story of the fictional city, Ersilia, that clarity came about. Marco Polo describes the city of Ersilia as a one of relationships. The inhabitants rely on an established system of relationships to sustain the city’s life. They do so by connecting the structures of their buildings with colored string, each one categorized by blood, trade, authority, or agency. The stringing of the buildings is the soul of Ersilia, repeated obsessively until the thread is so dense inhabitants can no longer move through them. With immense acceptance, the inhabitants leave, destroying everything but the labyrinth of string and the structures they are attached to. By the end of the tale, Marco Polo describes Ersilia as “the ruins of abandoned cities, without the walls which do not last, without the bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spiderwebs of intricate relationships seeking a form.” In my own exploration of Shibuya Crossing a system of relationships was defined and illustrated (fig. 27). The end of the analysis produced a composite digram of movement, intention, and construction all webbed together by fictional relationships. The Shibuya Composite Diagram (fig. 26) parallels the story of Ersilia—the search for the Shibuyan form. Nomadic-Migratory Movement (fig. 29) began as an exploration of this form. It seeks to organize the intricacies of the Japanese crossing with hatched zones of interest. The diagram illustrates two narratives of opposing relationships—the nomad and the migrant. Marked in blue, the nomad explores Shibuya without a destination, moving from point A to B not out of intention, but as the unavoidable result of walking. He arrives in Shibuya Station, wandering a porous below-above ground condition, eventually finding his way through Shibuya Crossing and into a threshold of sensory overload. The migrant, marked in red, begins in the confines of a nearby residential neighborhood. She moves from point A to B to fulfill a day’s worth of assignments. From the five-story department store to buy a gift, to a local cafe to meet a friend, she moves through Shibuya Crossing not to discover but out of necessary convenience. What is left in the digram is a skeleton of movement and connectivity. Physical and literal in the city of Ersilia, the concept of connection is illustrated symbolically in the story of Shibuya Crossing. Nomadic-Migratory Movement suggests an interval relationship within the city, an ode to the Japanese philosophy of ma. 3
40
3 The Japanese spatial concept best described as a consciousness of place, not in the sense of an enclosed three-dimensional entity, but rather the simultaneous awareness of form and non-form deriving from an intensification of vision. Ma is not something that is created by compositional elements; it is the thing that takes place in the imagination of the human who experiences these elements. MA The Japanese Spatial Expression, Columbia University
Fig. 29 Nomadic-Migratory Movement
41
Fig. 30 Migrant Parti
GR
Fig. 31 Composite Parti
OU
ND
LEV
EL
Fig. 32 Nomad Parti
Fig. 33 / Perspectives and plan of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. CharlesEdouard Jeanneret believed the relic to epitomize the idea of the architectural approach (later known as the promenade).
44
INTERLUDE The Promenade
45
Fig. 34
PRECEDENT #02 Le Corbusier The term ‘promenade architecturale’ was first used by Le Corbusier in his description of the newly constructed Villa Savoye (1928) in Poissy, France. In a conversation with Pierre Jeanneret, Corbusier says, “In this house occurs a veritable promenade architecturale, offering aspects constantly varied, unexpected, and sometimes astonishing.” 4 The term was used in lieu of circulation, eventually superseding it altogether. Described as a network influenced by the act of designing the single building, Le Corbusier carried the term into fruition as the simple experience of walking through space, whether as the isolated construct or the ingrained urban system. Beyond movement, promenade speaks of the interior-exterior relationship of the building and the “realignment with nature” it may facilitate. 5 Promenade is perhaps formulaic in its following of similar rules, adjusting slightly to the given site. It is a complex web of ideas, a ritual of re-sensitization. It offers the unfolding of scenes, not to tell but to allude to a greater story. It is an architectural tool beyond the physical, reaching into a realm of deeper meaning and question. The architecturale promenade asks, “How do we want to live?” The following exercises on promenade seek to establish a system of language as they relate to the characters of Mauerpark and Shibuya Crossing, and the theory of promenade as a storytelling tool.
Fig. 35
4 Flora Samuel, Le Corbusier and the Architectural Promenade, 9 5 Flora Samuel, Le Corbusier and the Architectural Promenade, 11
01/18/2018 08:53 PM
Student 1: Your model looks mean. Student 2: Thank you!
INSIDIOUS PROMENADE
Using literary terms as a means of generating space, Insidious Promenade 01 (fig. 37), begins with a narrow threshold, pulling the individual from above to below ground, from dark to light. The monologue thus begins, enclosing the experience into a cavernous space of limited reveals. The intimacy of the space and lack of outside influence allows the story to begin an introspective narrative—qualities experienced during a ride through one of Berlin’s ghost stations. From there, the model progresses into opposing pockets of narrow and open space. Insidious Promenade 02 (fig. 36) serves as a quick exploration of form. The volume of space appears to be unfolding from a conceptual ground, leaving behind the boundaries of a sunken promenade. In each model gaps between the shaped museum board are evident to allow for a contrasting narrative to respond to that of the Insidious, moving away from the monologue into that of the dialogue. Meant as symbolic odes to both the figurative character of the Insidious and the literal experience of the Berlin Wall, the two models stand as constructed scars, resonating with the dark history of Berlin.
Fig. 36
Fig. 37
Fig. 38
Fig. 39
Fig. 40
EPHEMERAL PROMENADE
Rather than force Ephemeral Promenade 01 (fig. 39) to physically fit with the Insidious, the model explores its distinct qualities in isolation. Porous and lightweight, the model illustrates the “filling in� of negative space. It explores narrow moments through open, lightweight means, using translucent and tensile materials. The ephemeral spaces float over one another in response to the multiplicity of Shibuya Crossing. As pedestrians float over one another through the city with contrasting intentions, so do the spaces of the promenade. While a clear form is present, a clear procession is not. Pockets of spaces, dead-ends, and vertical versus horizontal moments keep the movement unpredictable and haphazard. The promenade sections (fig. 40) begin to touch upon the dialogue between the Insidious and the Ephemeral. Embedded, below ground conditions and suspended, filtered spaces speak of both characters as one moves through an imagined composite promenade.
Ephemeral Promenade 02 (fig. 41) uses a thirty meter grid to construct a Plexiglas base. The gridded plane sets an undertone of strict organization while allowing moments of chaos to exist on top. A shifted, gestural promenade is thus born. Wire moves in multiple directions with the thickest piece following the axis of Shibuya Crossing, and the thinnest pieces following arterial axises. The layering of Plexiglas challenges different levels of transparency, alluding to an ability to see glimpses of silhouettes and movement both above and below. Lastly, the singular red element in the model, an abstracted staircase, marks the only moment in which all three levels of glass are broken. The strong vertical movement serves to surprise the individual as they move through the ephemeral promenade.
Fig. 41
Fig. 42 / Sections, plan, and elevation of Aldo Rossi’s “Monument to the Resistance” in Cuneo, Italy—a post-World War II monument dedicated to the Italian partisan
56
INTERLUDE The Archetype
57
Fig. 43
PRECEDENT #03 Aldo Rossi Aldo Rossi describes typology as an “apparatus of time’s measurement.” 6 It is a reflection of history and the collective memory of people and culture. Amorphous and ever-changing, Rossi uses type not as a historical tool of concrete analysis, but as a design strategy, a means of studying the elements of a city as a creative generator. Typology is not the contained object defined by its use and function; it is the nostalgia and emotion evoked by the object, recreated endlessly and without limitation. It is the invisible thread between archetypes, the ephemeral commonalities shared that drives the meaning of typology. Rossi’s understanding of typology is summarized by the seeing of differences and complementary relationships. It is through the comparative study of urban form that typology can be fully realized. While the city itself is the ultimate type, it serves as an umbrella of parts, collecting the bones and joints of the whole skeleton. Rossi defines the two most important urban artifacts in the city as those of the MONUMENT and the DWELLING due to their comparable permanences within the city. The MONUMENT is expressed as that of the individual, “dialectically related to the city’s growth.” 7 It is the historical snapshot constructed as a frozen memory. The city responds to the MONUMENT with deep respect, carving piazzas and plazas around the mummified forms. The MONUMENT is a symbolic element related to time. Oppositely, the DWELLING is not that of the individual but of the collective. It is not the specifics of facade and structure that define the type, but the broad impact of districts and zones. The DWELLING is the artifact of the people. Rather than a symbol of function, it is a practice of function related to use. 8 It is here that the thesis finds its niche, using the MONUMENT and the DWELLING as design processes. What is produced as a result of Rossi’s typology is the feeling of the city manifested as architecture.
6 Aldo Rossi, Scientific Autobiography 7 Peter Eisenman, “Editor’s Introduction,” Architecture of the City, 6 8 Peter Eisenman, “Editor’s Introduction,” Architecture of the City, 6-7
THE INSIDIOUS MONUMENT
Fig. 44
Using gray rockite as representative context and white museum board as the language of the Insidious, the model (fig. 45) explores the monument as defined by Rossi. Descending from above to below, the monument invites the individual into a single space illuminated by an above ground aperture. Constructed surfaces embed themselves like a parasitic entity, allowing for observation to exist in the space between the above and below.
Fig. 45
THE EPHEMERAL MONUMENT
Fig. 46
Paralleling the materiality of the previously explored promenade, the Ephemeral Monument (fig. 47) uses wire and basswood to express light volumes held by tensile structures. The model touches its context with extreme delicacy, floating above a ground condition of activity.
Fig. 47
THE COMPOSITE DWELLING
Fig. 48
Rather than continue explorations of the Insidious and the Ephemeral in isolation from one another, the Composite Dwelling (fig. 49) seeks to marry the two languages. Three volumes symbolize the scale of urban facades, each intervened by a continuous procession of heavy overhangs and porous, suspended spaces. The interventions weave themselves into the context as a symbol of the dwelling’s impermanence in which the details of the facade are not fixed but constantly altered.
Fig. 49
66
CHAPTER 3 Venice, Italy
67
07/21/2014 04:46 PM
Fig. 50
My mouth tastes of red — red tomatoes, red lips, red tongues held behind one and within the other. I lick macaron-colored walls from foundation to frothy green shutters, painting red with burnt orange and sweet whipped cream. The street is cobblestones and candy stores and the smell of discovery shouting my name from cracked stoops. “Over here!” a city of memories and olive oil calls. I respond, “Oh, Venice. Oh, thousands of years of built up beauty. I am here and I am your’s.” I feel a thousand conversations take refuge in pink lining. Hand gestures, the sun paralleled in muddled reflections. These are the tastes of a summer romance between myself and metropolis.
AN ODE TO CALVINO
While much of the analysis of the thesis is presented as isolated studies, neither the Insidious nor the Ephemeral are exclusive to the sites they are born from. Should I have looked for the Insidious in Shibuya or the Ephemeral in Berlin, the thesis would have progressed into the conclusion it was always set out to become. The characters discovered are merely vehicles of urban ideology, meant to be interpreted by the individual and the personal experiences that shape a response. A person reading this book may relate the Insidious and the Ephemeral not to Berlin or Shibuya, but to entirely different cities with just as much relevancy. With this in mind, the thesis then becomes, under the demand of the inevitable, an ode to Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. It is a retelling of Venice, a modern-day commentary on the urban condition and thus, the site is realized and the story can begin.
THE BREAK DOWN
Characters:
The Insidious The Ephemeral
Site / Theater:
Venice The Promenade
Stages:
The Monument The Dwelling
Plot:
La Carnevale
08
07
05 - 06
03 - 04 02
01
VENICE Fig. 51
ITALY
White highlights dance between the stages of La Carnevale, each marked by the chapter in which they take place. From the sensory neighborhoods to the monumental churches, odes to Rossi’s archetypes are explored as a series of juxtaposed scenes within the Venetian context. The story begins in San Marco Piazza, enticing us down an alleyway into scenes of everyday activity. We are enthralled in the built up of dwellings under the guide of the Ephemeral, eventually pulled from the normalcy into the monumental. Two churches, Parrochia di Santa Maria Formosa and Basilica dei Santo Paolo e Giovanni, house the story of the Insidious. A conflicted dialogue continues between the two until we are met with the horizon of the Venetian Lagoon. La Carnevale ends with the approach toward Cimitero di San Michele, a cemetery island just north of Venice. The island is both symbolic and conclusive, allowing us the space to reflect on the story just experienced.
09 CIMETERO DI SAN MICHELE
74
La Carnevale
A short story of the Ephemeral and the Insidious during a celebration of the Carnival of Venice
From ‘Narrative Cities’ an M. Arch Thesis By Androniki Karambasis
75
contents
Introduction
03
Piazza San Marco
07
Ponte dei Sospiri
11
An Ephemeral Monologue
13
Sta. Maria Formosa
19
A Dialogue Turned Conflict
23
An Insidious Monologue
27
San Giovanni e Paolo
31
Laguna Veneta
39
Cimitero di San Michele
43
03
01 introduction
The following story is a take on the human condition as expressed through the characters of the Insidious and the Ephemeral. The story is a philosophical one, an ode to the cycle of life and its inexorable ups and downs. Despite its plots of poor human experiences the story is a depiction of the utopia, though not by its traditional definition but by its reliance on the imaginary. “La Carnevale� is not to be realized by historical context or compared to the ideologies of the utopian world. It exists to lead the spectator toward an internal response, not to dictate or impose an authoritarian ideal.
04
Character A: • •
A gambler, a con artist, an instigator of the mischievous The INSIDIOUS is dead ends, walls, and clandestine program; it lures the spectator into forbidden corners and hidden spaces
Character B: • •
•
THE EPHEMERAL
An entertainer, a ghost The EPHEMERAL is transparent layers, blurred edges, and impressionable material; it invites the spectator into light-filled rooms and suspended spaces
Character C: •
THE INSIDIOUS
THE SPECTATOR
Us, we, the collective experience, observation of, and reaction to the unfolding narrative of ‘La Carnevale’ The spectator is the unsuspecting victim caught between a fight; we are pulled by the EPHEMERAL and the INSIDIOUS, captivated by their journeys through Venice and the competing narratives of each; we are the unbiased perspective, the controlled variable in a story of fleeting constancy
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02 piazza san marco
The beginning setting of the story. Posters hang from the square’s 3 flagpoles, following the wind as bystanders gather, read, and respond with indifference or piqued interest. There is no in between. You either accept or deny the invitation.
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Fig. 52
Three volumes, thin and vertical, puncture a transparent plane in stoic declaration. Below the void of Plexiglas is a looming presence, constructed in white board and vibrant red tendrils. The model begins with the introduction of La Carnevale, unfolding contextual gray walls into the heart of their activity. Like an open cadaver, the model exposes the inner-workings of its form. A single light box hints at a moment of the below observing the above. A parallel presence, hidden and subterranean, continues to stalk the story of the Ephemeral as an inextricable counterpart.
A homogeneous material reaches from the edges of a decaying wall. It says, “Come here! Come up! Let me carry you into a new light.�
Fig. 53
11
03 ponte dei sospiri
Rather than follow a current down La Merceria, where sounds, smells, and the feel of silken goods absorbs the flaneur, we are enticed down a smaller alleyway; an odor of water and man made currents fills the nostril. A single string / a homogeneous material / a finger-like tendril reaches from the edges of a decaying wall. It says, come here! Come up! Let me carry you into a new light. And so we follow, rising along the edges of buildings, each a different color and height yet uninterrupted physically. The sound of a singing gondolier from below tells us we are passing a watery channel. Slowly, we descend, the mystery of what has beckoned us still unsolved yet all the more captivating. It waits for us like a buzzing thing charged by too many outlets.
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I am the lasting presence of the people as a collective. Let us walk through the corridors of storefronts and signage—their layered facades as transparent as water.
Fig. 54
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04 an ephemeral monologue
EPHEMERAL: I am the result of constant energy. I am the residue of history and relationships. I cannot be contained like an object, but merely felt as a locus of collective memory. What I represent is not the walls or the stones of the floors we walk upon, and the kitchens and pipes that make the homes we walk through. What I am is the idea of the DWELLING, one of two permanences most important to the urban condition. My permanence lies not in the specifics of who and what but in the lasting presence of the people as a collective. I represent the district of activity and the impact it makes on the city as a whole. As you follow me you will see the parts of the sum, the city within the city I represent. Let us walk through tight corridors of storefronts and signage. Let us smell the layers of material and the cloud of Venetian sensations they blend into. Let us move through facades, their layered composition as transparent as water. We feel no gravity, no grounding, only the buzz of everyday activity—of bakers, students, mask-makers, and mothers.
14
I stop us abruptly, allowing two women in volto masks and hooped dresses to pass. The ceramic of their white masks covers every feature of their faces. They are hidden entirely, anonymous in broad daylight and human only by the slight indenture of two nostrils and pursed lips. One stops just before us, allowing us a better look at the details of her disguise—of the four-foot tall bouquet of feathers sitting on her head—the layers of silk hiding a body. She tilts a head, extends an arm. We think she is about to speak until a boy with bread interrupts, bumping into beads and feathers. She disappears.
We ascend now. From storefronts to windows, through the planes of floorboards and ceramic rooftops, we gain height and are met with a new scene. There is the gathered crowd in the campo celebrating openly and harmoniously. Then, the funneling of energy into the narrow alleyway, where the span of your arms is long enough to feel its stone edges. Rising higher is the sunlit balcony—its ajar glass doors an invitation to enter.
Two figures in volto masks and hooped dresses are hidden entirely, anonymous in broad daylight and human only by the indenture of nostrils and lips. Fig. 55
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05 parrochia di santa maria formosa
Across the cream-colored home is a white church. It makes its subtle impact on the surrounding context, shifting the roads along its skewed axis, absorbing what is close enough into its influence. It sits as simple geometries of space—a square and an upturned rectangular prism, both topped by crowns of bulbous shapes. The church is a snapshot into fifteenth century Venice, a symbolic function dependent on time. Blurbs of another world interrupt the normalcy. They start off short and sudden, but gradually catch our falls and entrap us into a world entirely unlike the one we come from. Beyond the flower-lined window is a burning structure, what we recognize as the site’s original inhabitant. It is engulfed in flames, breaking under the heat in a sequence of stained glass, wooden trusses, and stone arches. The fire does not stop, but evolves into a screen of changing scenes: a collapsed dome, a public hanging, the Virgin Mary disguised, a drunken gambler trespassing under the anonymity of a bauta mask. This is not the story of the Ephemeral, but of something very, very different.
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Fig. 56
Fig. 57
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a dialogue turned conflict
EPHEMERAL: Why do you exist with the sole goal of rage in mind? Does it lift you to terrorize and disrupt, whether through physical or psychological means?
INSIDIOUS: I see you don’t try to hide your distaste very much anymore.
EPHEMERAL: You are not welcome here.
(INSIDIOUS is both disappointed and delighted by the candor. A head shakes; a smirk forms.)
INSIDIOUS: What was once confusion has evolved into a trial of disapproval and brazen action. Why do you choose not to understand?
EPHEMERAL: What is there to understand? You wish to keep the city in its past; to undo the stitches of a healed history. I wish to move forward and represent a city of constant progression.
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INSIDIOUS: You wish to forget what you already are. You see, we are merely different sides to the same coin. We cannot exist in isolation from one another. You are reacting with hostility to the very thing you caused and I am but a mere reminder.
(EPHEMERAL seethes in silence. Their pause between words is deafening.)
INSIDIOUS: I am the materialized shame. I am the probing of the self-inflicted wound, half-clotted and no longer hidden from within but realized openly for public discourse. The negativity you build from my existence is not because of me, but because you simply don’t like what I have to say.
EPHEMERAL: You speak of lies, but I am the city’s truth.
INSIDIOUS smiles fully at the statement. It is an unnerving and cold expression. There is more lying beneath it and EPHEMERAL does not wish to find out.
INSIDIOUS: As am I.
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06 an insidious monologue
INSIDIOUS: My story is one of many intentions. I sit here today a severed body on display, the roots of my form hidden in years of history. They have been walked on, sliced, burned, and danced with in decade-long cycles of forgetting and remembering. What I am is not the before to the after, but something made of interwoven relationships related to (not contained by) time. What I am is the idea of the Monument, a permanence not of the collective but of the individual, a chance to experience the past through a present vessel. I am a mummified presence, perhaps unsettling, perhaps unwelcome. But I cannot be ignored for I am ingrained in the urban context, represented as more than a figure-ground relationship but an entity of superimposed layers.
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Fig. 58
Let us walk behind a wall of solid stone into the formidable past. Behind the beauty of white travertine lies a space of deception. We are not allowed here, but we enter with agility, safe from prosecution under the mask of the volto and bauta. Their complete covering of our features allows us a quiet entrance and hopefully, a quiet exit. Follow me behind the altar and let us descend into the watery catacombs of Venice’s deepest secrets. Do you feel the cold and damp atmosphere? Perhaps it is the result of an abandoned space weathered in time. Perhaps it is the result of hundreds of years of disappearances, the corruption of the Doge and his failed coup d’etat. We descend and we descend, our only hint of the celestial world expressed through beams of penetrating light. Where we occupy is the inner-most layer of the inferno. We move beneath the everyday as one of two projections of the city above.
Fig. 59
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07 campo san giovanni e paolo / a continued dialogue
Across a void of built space, we dart from the campo’s exposure to take refuge in the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo. The doges of Venice are buried here, along with the malfeasances they tried so hard to hide from their earthly world.
INSIDIOUS: Humans from above, let me take you into another depth of the inferno below.
We move as a parallel force to the Venetian ground. Through layered facades of mortar and brick, we enter the church with quiet feet. Every so often we hide behind stone columns as a bishop and his vicar walk in hurried cadence. The seamless marriage of column and vault captures our patient attention.
INSIDIOUS: This is what they want, your attention above so as to hide the truths below.
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Caught between a moment of transition, in the filtered light of the church transept, a presence calls us to stop. It is the celestial presence of the Ephemeral descended from the overhead bel-gable.
EPHEMERAL: How dare you trespass the sacred walls of the basilica!
(INSIDIOUS scoffs.)
INSIDIOUS: I am an inhabitant in the city of Venice, free to enter the churches of my land.
EPHEMERAL: It is a crime to enter under the guise of the volto.
INSIDIOUS: Then I shall uncover my mask and reveal my identity.
(INSIDIOUS removes the veil of a stoic, white face.)
Beneath the ceramic volto is a ghostly presence. From the mischievous and deceptive, the INSIDIOUS is now a entity of the light and ethereal. We shift our gaze from character to character, shocked by the reveal and sinking confusion. We stare at the conflict of identical twins. We cannot tell who is who.
(EPHEMERAL gasps.)
A lunge, an attack, but from who, we can’t be sure of. The fight gains intensity and we panic to find an escape. Following the sprawling conflict from the walls of the church to the campo outside, we hope to find relief in the shape of an arterial alleyway.
Fig. 60
As the Insidious darts across the campo he aims toward the confines of an adjacent church, hoping to conceal the quick moment of exposure. An eruption of conflict is illustrated by a burst of color, carving a gray context as it gains height. Eventually, a detracted red tendril stumbles onto the street, driving the Insidious from the boundaries of the model into a frantic escape down a narrow alley. It is at this moment that the spectator is finally free from the Insidious and the Ephemeral.
Fig. 61
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08 laguna veneta / the falling action
The leading street is unlike the ones we have previously experienced. Physically, it is no different. Should we outstretch our arms our fingers may graze the edges of weathered brick. There is no rhyme or reason for the haphazard organization of buildings, only the explanation of too much history. We pass the smells already ingrained into our minds: the rise of bread, the bloom of roses, and the stench of piled rubbish. But what is different about this street is not any physical quality, but our perception of it as changed beings. We are not swayed by the romance of the EPHEMERAL or the pessimism of the INSIDIOUS. We are alone save the company of our thoughts. The water of the Laguna Veneta meets our eyes and we can’t help but feel as though we are experiencing Venice for the first time in our lives.
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Fig. 62
As the model nears its conclusion, materials once homogeneous and structured fade into a ambiguous form of transparency. A single frosted plane hangs from the site’s boundaries, alluding to an experience absent thus far—the complete removal of outside forces. The newfound isolation allows for an final experience of internal reflection. It is here that the events of the immediate past are soused, digested, and ultimately, understood.
Fig. 63
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09 cimitero di san michele / the denouement
DE NOUE MENT the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.
A boat nears the edge of the Venetian island. No one emerges from the interior to call for the process of boarding. Perhaps this is because no one has gathered at the dock. Perhaps this is because no one on the boat cares to strain the invitation. But an invitation we feel and so we step from dock to deck. There is an immediate response. The ocean turns white under the vibration the engine and we travel toward a distant island with the sight of Cimitero di San Michele growing larger by the minute. We sit silently, consumed in thought. Our minds cannot decipher between the real and the imagined. We share our shortcomings without much communication, understanding that the story experienced thus far cannot be described by anything less than its entirety. The boat stops and we exit without direction.
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Fig. 64
A curtain closes. The theater is quiet. The rise and fall of the characters on stage has come to its end. In the absence of the words, interactions, and reactions is an answer to a question we have long since asked: how do we want to live? The answer is not simple and our thoughts cannot contain themselves to the simplicity of a single sentence. Instead, we are left with emotions and unfolded scenes, with the answer to our question woven in their threads.
Fin
LIST OF FIGURES Figure 01
My Head is a Jungle, Anna Klozaroz Wadowska
Figure 02
Photograph of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Author
Figure 03
Mauerpark Site Map, Author
Figure 04
Photograph of Mauerpark
Figure 05
Photograph of the Berlin Wall
Figure 06
Photograph of the Berlin Wall at Bernauer Strasse
Figure 07
Mauerpark Site Diagram, Author
Figure 08
Mauerpark Notation, Author
Figure 09
Mauerpark Collage, Author
Figure 10
Photograph of a gated subway entrance
Figure 11
Photograph of GDR soldiers patrolling the Potsdamer Platz ghost station
Figure 12
Photograph of a walled subway tunnel
Figure 13
Photograph of Potsdamer Platz, 1963
Figure 14
Photograph of Potsdamer Platz, 2013
Figure 15
Model of the Insidious Channels, Author
Figure 16
Model of the Insidious Channels, Author
Figure 17
Photograph at Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo
Figure 18
Shibuya Site Map, Author
Figure 19
Photograph of Shibuya Crossing, Brett Goodhew
Figure 20
Photograph of Shibuya Station
Figure 21
Progression Map of the Yamanote Line
Figure 22
Instagram Photo, DAIARAKI1986
Figure 23
Instagram Photo, nomadictravel1
Figure 24
Instagram Photo, _Y2Joe
Figure 25
Instagram Photo, DS_Macmillan
Figure 26
Shibuya Composite Diagram, Author
Figure 27
Shibuya Web, Author
Figure 28
Shibuya Form, Author
Figure 29
Nomadic-Migratory Movement Diagram, Author
Figure 30
Migrant Parti Model, Author
Figure 31
Composite Parti Model, Author
Figure 32
Nomad Parti Model, Author
Figure 33
Plan and perspectives of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece
Figure 34
Plans of Rue Nungesser et Coli in Paris, France, Le Corbusier
Figure 35
Photograph of Rue Nungesser et Coli in Paris, France, Le Corbusier
Figure 36
Model of Insidious Promenade 02, Author
Figure 37
Model of Insidious Promenade 01, Author
Figure 38
Plan of Insidious Promenade 01, Author
Figure 39
Model of Ephemeral Promenade 01, Author
Figure 40
Sections of Ephemeral Promenade 01, Author
Figure 41
Ephemeral Promenade 02, Author
Figure 42
Sections, plan, and elevation of the “Monument to the Resistance” in Cuneo, Italy, Aldo Rossi
Figure 43
Photographs of Gallaratese Quarter, Karina Castro
Figure 44
Section of Insidious Monument, Author
Figure 45
Model of Insidious Monument, Author
Figure 46
Section of Ephemeral Monument, Author
Figure 47
Model of Ephemeral Monument, Author
Figure 48
Section of Composite Dwelling, Author
Figure 49
Model of Composite Dwelling, Author
Figure 50
Photographs of Venice, Italy, Author
Figure 51
Venice Site Map, Author
Figure 52
Photograph of La Carnevale Model showing Chapters 1-2 at San Marco Piazza, Author
Figure 53
Illustration of Chapter 3 of La Carnevale, Author
Figure 54
Illustration of Chapter 4 of La Carnevale, Author
Figure 55
Illustration of Chapter 4 of La Carnevale, Author
Figure 56
Photograph of La Carnevale Model showing Chapter 5’s reveal of the Insidious, Author
Figure 57
Photograph of La Carnevale Model showing Chapter 5’s reveal of the Insidious, Author
Figure 58
Illustration of Chapter 6 of La Carnevale, Author
Figure 59
Photograph of La Carnevale Model showing Chapter 7 at Campo San Giovanni e Paolo, Author
Figure 60
Photograph of La Carnevale Model showing the conflict of Chapter 7 between the Insidious and Ephemeral, Author
Figure 61
Photograph of La Carnevale Model showing the conflict of Chapter 7 between the Insidious and Ephemeral, Author
Figure 62
Photograph of La Carnevale Model Chapter 8 at the Veneta Laguna, Author
Figure 63
Photograph of La Carnevale Model Chapter 8 at the Veneta Laguna, Author
Figure 64
Photograph of La Carnevale Model Chapter 1-9, Author
WORKS CITED
Calvino, Italo, and William Weaver. Invisible Cities. Harcourt. Brace Jovanovich, 1974. Christensen, Peter G. Utopia and Alienation in Calvino's Invisible Cities journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/001458588602000102. Deleuze, Gilles, and FeÌlix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. University of Minnesota Press, 1987. Rossi, Aldo. “The Architecture of the City.” The Architecture of the City, MIT Press, 2007. Samuel, Flora. Le Corbusier and the Architectural Promenade. Birkhauser, 12 Dec. 2011, issuu.com/birkhauser.ch/docs/le-corbusier- architectural-promenade/16. Weiner, Eric. “Urban Oases: Getting Lost in 'Invisible Cities'.” NPR, NPR, 21 Jan. 2013, www.npr.org/2013/01/21/161712231/urban-oases- getting-lost-in-invisible-cities.