ENRIC MIRALLES The drawing of the imagination 3 Houses: Theorical Part Ànnia Figuerola Rigat & Núria sant Puig NTNU // 2020 - 2021
Enric Miralles i Moya (1955-2000) was a Catalan architect who stood out for his strong design expression and his parti cular language. In his projects, the process of creation is not only limited to the form, instead this is the mere result of said process but never the aim. Drawing was his main tool to start thinking about the project, and the one that stayed with him throughout all the creative processes. He used the drawings in different ways, it could even be said that he invented a way of drawing architecture, his own version of approaching it; as if it was a conversation between the mind and the starting conditions of the place, to find an intermediate point between reason and imagination. All his drawings, from his sketches and collages to his more technical plans, are full of expression; they have a great ability to convey his emotions, concerns and thoughts. Through drawings and collages, mixing specific things or abstract thoughts, the configuration of the projects arises.
Like the Theory of drift, solutions appear without searching them once the task is started and through the situations that the work generates itself. It is, in these circumstances, where the keys he uses to develop his projects emerge.
“The drawing appears as the beginning of a dialogue, as a first thought. The architectural drawing, not as a place of thought, but as something parallel to it…” - Enric Miralles. n.1 1. Raymon Queneau. Libro Cent Mille Milliard de poèms. París, Gallimard Colección fundación Juan March. 1961 2. Signature of Enric Miralles. 3. Stain Church of Roma. 1994. Enric Miralles Fundation. 4. Stain Modern Art Museum of Helsinki. 1993. Enric Miralles Fundation 5. Book sketch. 15 work. 1st part. 1999. Enric Miralles Fundation. 6/7/8. Scotland Parliment. Edimburgo. 1998. Enric Miralles Fundation. 9. Square of constitution sketch. 1987. Enric Miralles Fundation. n.1. RIBAS, Carme; RAVETLLAT, Pere Joan; ROIG, Joan. Enric Miralles y Carme Pinós. 1 ed. Barcelona: A-30 Publicación de Arquitectura nº 6, 1987. Desplegable.
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11. SALVADOR Gilabert. Watercolor of the interpetation of the creative thought of Enric Miralles. 2015. 12. Collage David Hockney. Mayflower hotel room New York. Inspiration. 1982.
13. Collage of the construction of the Social Center of Hostalet. 1991. Enric Miralles 14.Fundation.Collage. Superposition of plans and drawings. Tesalónica pier project. 1996. Enric Miralles Fundation. n.2. MIRALLES, Enric. (1987). Cosas vistas a izquierda y derecha (sin gafas): tesis doc toral. Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectu ra de Barcelona. pg 88;98.
10. Igualada Cementery sketch. 2000. Enric Miralles Fundation.
“The imagination takes over from the representation of reali ty and it is the inner world and the imagination that lead the course of the drawings, the observation passes from the real world to the inner one or imagined.” - Enric Miralles, 1987. Cosas vistas a izquierda y derecha (sin gafas). n.2
The fundamental concept that creates the universe of Enric Miralles is the imagination. The relationship between things give rise to a in which ideas appear, things come from one place or go to the next, and it is in this process of work and creation where inspiration (which can burst in from a poem or some pieces of art to the history of the place, for example) is materialized through drawings. From the relations between things, places, programmes, clients and history, the pro ject unfolds and takes shape. Yet, the final result becomes a non-expected shape, but found within the set process of creation, and it is in this form where the architectural space is contained. This architecture is never considered finished and evolves to another place with a different proposal.
In all the projects of his career, his great concern and respect for the place stands out. This is the starting point, where all ideas, conditions, intuitions, thoughts and concepts meet to materialize. According to Miralles there is no Tabula rasa ever. Things are made of layers of history, sociology, economics, etc., that he takes into account when projecting. His collages are also a particular tool that he in order to join all his ideas with the place and afterwards process something new. 10 11
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Miralles’ career is divided into three different stages with several noticeable projects in each one of them. The first stage takes place in the office of Albert Viaplana and Helio Piñón. It was a time, above all, of learning, although he already stood out for his way of drawing and his way of approaching things. He began to define his own way of projecting / thinking architecture. 16 18 16 / 17. Diagram and sketch of Igualada Cementery. 2000. Enric Miralles Fundation. 18. Drawing of the front facade of Santa Ca terina Market. Laura Diaz. 2018. 19. Plan sketch Olympic Archery Center. 20. Photography of the window of the Scot tish Parliment. 2012. 21. Sketch. Vila Piheiros. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. 1996. Enric Miralles Fundation. 22. Plan. Igualada Cementery. Enric Miralles Fundation.
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23 24 25 26 His second stage takes place in his first office, created together with his partner and wife Carme Pinós, a union that lasted four years. It was a time of defining his own intentions, of creating a personal way of doing and when he found the basis for the development of his creative work. He had a great professional recognition and a complete definition of his way of doing architecture. Outstanding works include the “Ceme tery of Igualada” and “Olympic Archery Center in Barcelona”.
27 30292823. Photography. Igualada Cementery 24. Paul KLEE. Snake Paths. 1934. 25. Sketch. Igualada Cementery. Doctoral thesis. 1987. Archivo cedido por Fundació Enric Miralles. 26. Plan of the Olympic Archery Center. Enric Miralles. 27 / 28. Plan and sketch of Igualada Cemen tery. Fundació Enric Miralles. 29 / 30. Photographys of the Olympic Archery Center.
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The next, and last stage, is defined by his association with Benedetta Tagliabue, forming the EMBT firm. It was the moment of international recognition already with that own innovative and firm style, with a more daring architecture. The “rehabilitation of the Santa Caterina Market in Barcelona” and “Parliament of Scotland” stand out.
34 35 36 31. Site, model photos and sketches. Santa Caterina Market. EMBT. El Croquis n. 144. 2000 - 2009. pag. 124. 32. Photomontage Santa Caterina Market. EMBT Fundation. 33. Site, model photos and sketches. Scottish Parliment. Enric Miralles. El Croquis n. 144. 2000 - 2009. pag. 148. 34. Photomontage Scottish Parliment on Edinburgh. 1998. Enric Miralles Fundation. 35. Collage and sketch of Santa Caterina Market. EMBT Fundation. 36. Photography of Scottish Parliment on Edinburgh. El Croquis n. 144. 2000 - 2009. pag. 150 - 151.
KOLONIHAVEN, the little wooden house Building the time of life 37 38
In order to explain the mental and material process, along with his concerns and approaches, in a more specific way we want to focus on the project that he carried out together with his second wife, Benedetta Tagliabue: the Kolonihaven Atproject.theend of the 19th century, the Danish government gave up plots on the outskirts of the capital so that the new owners could build themselves a small cabi n to spend the summer days between leisure and garden work. In 1994, to promote this city as the European Cultural Capital of 1996, the Kolonihaven project invited different architects to propose a reinterpretation of the Danish tradition of wooden houses on the outskirts of Copenhagen, from the perspective of contemporary architecture. Miralles and Tagliabue thought of their work as a space that reflected the passage of time: the atmospheric, the chrono logical and the end of both. It seems like a space whose purpose is to capture time, and this is understood as a cycle, like a calendar: the passing of the seasons, the infant growing up and becoming an adult. They used two starting points to generate this time. Using cuttings from a botanical dictionary about plants and flowers, they made a circular calendar with the flowering periods of the plants throughout the year. Next to it, they placed some drawings of Le Corbusier that appear in “Le Modulor 2”, where a girl wants to play with her father: “Papa, vient jouer chez moi!”.
37. Site plan of Kolonihaven, Copenhagen. Enric Miralles Fundation. 1996. 38. Pencil sketches of his daughter Caterina. Kolonihaven. 1996. EMBT Fundation. 39. Collage: plan, botanic circular calendar and drawing of Le Corbusier on Le Modulor 2. EMBT. El Croquis n. 100. 1995 - 2000 pag. 120.
- EMBT Kolonihaven poem 39
The house becomes a calendar. Records the movement of time during the year, or during life ...
A small and a large A girl taking her first steps with the help of a miniature chair. This house Is a miniature stone in a bonsai landscape; It’s a rock in an artificial sandy landscape
A girl inviting an adult to her game, her size “Papa” vient chez moi! ”, As Le Corbusier drew. Father and daughter entering the same place through two different doors
Gathering the passage of time ...
The children’s room ...
The house is built around these familiar movements of the passing time: Surrounding furniture, movements and time.
In this way, the house becomes a calendar, which makes us realise about the space, time and, at the same moment, about the first steps of a child. The architects proposed the project as a children’s room to which the adult is invited. The adult and the child enter through two different doors, each with its respective height, and it is also composed of three volumes that represent the growth of the child. This project is a wooden playhouse, and its plan arises from the movements of a little girl, her daughter Caterina, playing while the parents watch her sitting at a table. On the other hand, what closes the pavilion, pretends to be a dress that embraces the girl’s game.
41 40 42 40. Ground plan. Kolonihaven project. EMBT Fundation. El Croquis n. 100. 19952000 pag. 122. 41. Horitzontal section. Kolonihaven project. EMBT Fundation. El Croquis n. 100. 19952000 pag. 122. 42. Sketch plan. Kolonihaven project. EMBT Fundation. El Croquis n. 100. 1995 - 2000 pag. 122. 43. Elevations of Kolonihaven Project. EMBT 44.fundation.Model photos. Kolonihaven project. EMBT Fundation. El Croquis n. 100. 19952000 pag. 121. 45. Photographys of a little girl (Caterina, Enric Miralles daughter) playing with a chair. Kolonihaven project. EMBT Fundation. El Croquis n. 100. 1995 - 2000 pag. 121.
The pavilion varies in height, creating three volumes. In the lowest one, the entrance door corresponds to the scale and dimension of the child, while the door of the highest volume (the exit door) represents the scale of the adult. Three stagge red volumes, as if the house itself grew with its inhabitants. It should be noted that the location was very important for Miralles when developing the project. This pavilion is located next to a large tree, beside the lowest volume. The wooden skeleton of the pavilion aims to imitate the branches of the tree, creating a symbiosis between the project and the outsi de world.
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46. Plan Kolonihaven project. EMBT Funda tion. El Croquis n. 100. 1995 - 2000 pag. 47120./48. Soap model photos. Own elaboration 49. Collage wood model photo. Own elaboration n.3. Juhani Pallasmaa, The Embodied Ima ge. Imagination and Imagery in Architecture, Gustavo Gili, SL, Barcelona, 2014, p.158. 46
“The buildings are not seen, but an encounter occurs with them; we approach buildings, we confront them, we enter them, they come into contact with our body, we move inside them and we use them as a context and condition of ob jects and activities. A building provides direction, scale and a framework to our actions, interrelationships, perceptions and thoughts. [...] Therefore, the effect of architecture on human experience is too ingrained on an existential level to be approached as an element of visual design. ” n.3 However, the meeting point not only addresses the amalgam of actions that fills this architecture with a versatile charac ter, but also the sentimental connotations that they bring. We could say that the Kolonihaven, is a project that mixes the mo vement, sensitivity and emotion, with the most innocent look that seeks playful ways for children’s games. Is all these that makes so special and unique this space that lead to actions which move the human affection as if they were a sensitive and empathetic choreography, becoming a direct form of relationship.
It is for all this that we can appreciate that the Kolonihaven goes far beyond being just a pavilion; it is an allegory of the action. It is the meeting point without the need to say “here is a meeting point”, it is the invitation to the adventure of reading the movement. Juhani Pallasmaa1 relates the form in a sense that, in our understanding, is the same meaning of this archi tecture.
Time - Space - Scale - Child - Adult 47 48 49
Wood model photos. Own elaboration. We wanted to capture the primary skeleton of the pavilion, being this, the essence of the space in tune with natu re. However, the desire is to focus on its shadow, as it is one of the ways to show how the passage of time falls upon the pavilion.
Wood model photos. Own elaboration. How the textile embrace the movment.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Márquez, F & Levene, R. (2009). EMBT. Continuidad después de la vida. El Croquis, 144, p. 124 - 195. Márquez, F & Levene, R. (2000). Enric Miralles. El Croquis, 100-101, p. 120 - 123. Oliva, C. (October 09, 2013). “Papa, vient jouer chez moi!” EMBT. Web site: < https://www.metalocus.es/es/noticias/papa-vient-jouer-chez-moi-embt > Arnardóttir, H & Sánchez, J. Casita para un Kolonihaven, de Enric Miralles. Web site: < http://historiasdecasas.blogspot.com/2005/06/casita-para-un-kolonihaven-de-en ric.html Fernández,> B. (November 21, 2018). Enric Miralles o cómo acceder a los edificios. Web site: < https://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/cl/905892/enric-miralles-o-como-acce der-a-los-edificios > Gilbert, S. (May, 2015). Enric Miralles. El dibujo de la imaginación. Doctoral thesis, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. Lopez, L. (May, 2008). Arquitectura y representación: Alvaro Siza y Enric Miralles. Doctoral thesis, UPC Barcelona.
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