FONDATION CARTIER BY JEAN NOUVEL (1994)
BLUR BUILDING
BY DILLER, SCOFIDIO & RENFRO (2002)
Critical Historical Practices | Case Study ARCH7035 (2020) Renae Schulz a1703673@student.adelaide.edu.au
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CONTENTS
Cover Page Images left to right 1. Fondation Cartier Exhibition Space, ground floor 2. The Blur Building interior stair case to Angel Deck
01. INTRODUCTION
07. DIRECT & DRIFT
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE BLUR BUILDING BY DILLER, SCOFIDIO AND RENFRO AND THE FONDATION CARTIER BY JEAN NOUVEL
DIRECTED CIRCULATION THROUGH BLUR BUILDING COMPARED TO THE LESS CHOREOGRAPHED MOVEMENT THROUGH FONDATION CARTIER
02. KEY WORDS
09. CONCLUSION
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOTH PROJECTS.
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE BLUR BUIILDING AND FONDATION CARTIER IN REGARDS TO SUBTRACTION, ADDITION, ARTIFICAL ENVIRONMENT, DIRECT AND DRIFT
03. SUBTRACTION & ADDITION
10. ENDNOTES
LIMITED VISUAL STIMULATION IN THE BLUR BUILDING COMPARED TO COMPLEX AND RICH REFLECTIONS FOUND IN FONDATION CARTIER.
ALL THE REFERENCES LISTED THROUGH THE DOCUMENT
05. ARTIFICAL ENVIRONMENT
10. IMAGE REFERENCES
BOTH PROJECTS CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT OF THEIR OWN FROM EXISTING SITE CONDITIONS
ALL IMAGE REFERENCES LISTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NUMBERS THROUGH THE DOCUMENT INCLUDING PHOTOGRAPHER AND IMAGE TYPE
INTRODUCTION The Blur Building by Diller, Scofidio and Renfro (2002) and the Fondation Cartier by Jean Nouvel (1994) both portray qualities engaging the senses and host an experience. These were both key projects to experience through the body, and to allow the body to define the space. Jean Nouvel’s pursuit for a perceptual game of ephemeral effects allows an architecture based on perception over presence.1 The Fondation Cartier questions the definition of interior/exterior and enables the sky to touch the earth. He brings layers and depth through a simple structure and plays with the way light refracts and reflects as it hits the glass. An art gallery in Paris, Fondation Cartier plays with context through it’s own site and the new site for the art it houses, allowing the art to be seen directly with nature, creating a new environment. In a world of visual appropriation, the Blur Building becomes a counter strategy experiment. 2 This temporary structure for the 2002 Swiss EXPO creates a climate, directly based off the site on which it sits. Blur is an ‘anti-spectacle’ featuring nothing to see except to engage with senses and question the body in space with unregulated movement and limited visual stimulation. 3 The following case studies allow a visual comparison of distinct qualities between both designs.
Figures top to bottom 3. The Blur Building from lake edge. 4. Fondation Cartier Facade and streetscape.
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BLUR BUILDING FONDATION CARTIER KEY WORDS IN COMMON WORDS USED IN CASE STUDIES
SITE & CONTEXT INDIGENOUS MATERIAL WEATHER SYSTEM UNPREDICTABLE PANORAMIC VIEW WATER RESPONSIVE ASCENT TEMPORARY
INTRODUCED WORDS
PERSPECTIVE TIME APPROACH BOUNDARY ARTIFICAL ENVIRONMENT
MATERIALITY
BOUNDARIES ENVIRONMENT REFLECTIONS THE GREAT CEDAR OF LEBANON EXTENSION OF GARDEN TRANS-APPEARANCE RELATION
ASCEND TRADITIONAL RESTRAINED ENGAGEMENT ENHANCEMENT
DYNAMIC WHITE-OUT MASSLESS SURFACELESS REACTION FORMLESS SUBTRACTION DE-MATERIALIZE
DISTORT TECHNOLOGY ADAPTABLE INDISTINCT EPHEMERAL PERFORMANCE
DEPTH GLASS MODERN MATERIAL TRANSPARENCY OPAQUE UNITY LIGHT EMPHASIS ADDITION
EPHEMERAL DEPTH OF FIELD LIBERATING FROM MASS SIMPLE VOLUMES REGULARITY MINIMAL LAYERED
EXPERIENCE ATMOSPHERE CONTINOUS DE-EMPHASIS DEPTHLESS APPREHENSION IMMERSIVE FOCUS REFERENCES ERASED
SENSATIONAL PHENOMENOLOGY VAGUENESS DIRECT MOVEMENT UNCLEAR CHALLENGING PERSONAL
AMBIGUITY ABSENCE EMPTINESS FLEXIBLITIY LEVITATION PERCEPTION VOID RHYTHMICAL ARRANGEMENT
OPTICAL EFFECTS ELUSIVE EVERCHANGING UNIQUE ADDITION PROGRAMMED DRIFT
KEY WORDS EXPLAINED ‘ARTIFICAL’
‘SUBTRACTION’
‘AMBIGUITY’
‘DRIFT’
The cloud of fog is an outcome of the Blur Building, designed to be directly related and responsive to the occuring weather with the fog changing season to season. The 30,000 water nozzles filters the water directly off the lake and creates a cloud like structure over the lake, an artifical fog machine.
The Blur Building subtracts all visual stimulation as a counter argument against our appetite for HD. In contrast Blur strives to achieve a low-definition, de-emphasis on a large environmental scale. 4
Using glass, and highly transparent surfaces, Nouvel creates a sense of ambiguous perceptions, when the sky is reflected on the trees reflected on the pane of glass behind there is no distinguishing between interior and exterior.
With an open floor plan for exhibition purposes, Fondation Cartier encourages visitors to get lost in the facade reflections as they drift through the gallery.
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SUBTRACTION & ADDITION Although portraying similar qualities of sensorial experience, The Blur Building and Fondation Cartier achieve this through very different concepts, with one a near complete subtraction of the visual sense and the other playing heavily on light and layers to create complexity and ambiguity. The Blur Building subtracts visual stimulation and form to provide the experience of a formless, massless and surfaceless structure, 5 engaging the user with heightened senses of touch and hearing. Through key moves such as this, Blur Building engages with a wider exploration of phenomenology, body intimacy and distance. ‘Unlike entering a building, blur is like entering a habitable medium.’ 6 All achieved through the constant production of fog and minimal building intervention. Unlike Blur Building, The Fondation Cartier comprises of added layers of reflection offering rich visual stimulation. Nouvel uses complex sensorial games to add depth into a series of ambiguous perceptions. 7 Through the use of glass and light, the historic cedar tree and surrounding context plays to produce ever changing reflections and ultimately the illusion of difference between interior and exterior.
Figures from top left of Blur Building (Colour blocking used for images to show sense of subtraction and minimal visual qualities) 5. Minimal view after entering the fog in the company of a child and presence of another person a distance away. 6. Minimal view after entering the fog. 7.Minimal view after entering the fog in the presence of another person. 8. (Large imge) While amost the fog showing minimal structure in black and the raincoats giving everyone a similar figure.
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Figures from top left of Fondation Cartier (Colour blocking used for images to show addition through structure and reflected layers) 9. Perspective looking into gallery space with structure in black and reflective trees from glass. 10. Facade detail looking through glass with structure in black and layerd vegetation. 11. Facade following structure in black with reflected vegetation. 12. (Large Image) Perspective looking towards stairs with structure in black and glass facade creating reflections and layers.
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ARTIFICAL ENVIRONMENT The Blur Building and Fondation Cartier both create an artificial environment, directly related to the existing site, through their specific choice of materiality. The Blur Building not only takes concepts directly related to its environment, but also creates an environment through a continuously shifting structure and ephemeral state.8 The primary material, indigenous to site – water, is used as the key material to achieve this artificial environment. ‘Blur is not a building, BLUR is a pure atmosphere, the water particles suspended in mid-air’.9 This creates a weather system with the fog reacting to wind and temperature directly off the lake. The Blur Building emphasizes the absence of distinction between architecture and environment.10 Pre-existing environmental conditions on site of the Fondation Cartier influenced the design, the layout and the materials. Heavy choreography around the Cedar Tree with the intermediate surface framing this feature.11 Similarly to Blur, the Fondation Cartier creates it’s own environment through the properties of glass and light, reflecting and refracting to create a series of superimpositions of the surrounding sky, trees and streetscape.12 ‘Both physical building and the reflections the façade collects are part of the environment the human subject appreciates’.13
Figures from top left 13. Site location of Blur Building with lake blacked out for reference to materiality the design incoporates. 14. Angel Deck with fog floating beneath and lake water (dark) in context. 15. Site Map of Fondation Cartier with all existing trees blacked out for reference to influence in materiality. 16. Garden area between structure of Fondation Cartier with heavy reflective properties creating a deeper environment.
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Figures from left to right (Colour blocking used for images to show sense of subtraction and minimal visual qualities) 17. Section Drawing of Blur Building on lake showing quality of fog produced through 30,000 nozzle system to create artifical evironment. 18. Water nozzle to produce fog through the Blur Building.
Figures from left to right 19. Section drawing of Fondation Cartier showing existing vegetation designed around and incoporated through the visual effects of the glass. 20. Glass window within Fondation Carter to produce heavy reflective qualities creating extra layers to the environment.
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DIRECT & DRIFT Movement through the Blur Building begins on ground, with access to the experience via tunnels and bridges that cross the water. As the visitor approaches, visual and acoustic references become more erased, inducing feelings of disorientation and isolation.14 The movement for visitors is pre-determined and direct, with a single approach onto the open-air platform. Movement is unregulated, but it is expected visitors to finish on the higher level to at the Angel Bar where the fog is left behind. Fondation Cartier leaves behind the traditional gallery with similar notions of disorientation. The layers of reflections intrigue the visitor and enhances the desire to drift. ‘ The visitor passes beneath the cedar and sees the spectacle of the trees surrounding the glazed exhibition hall.’ 15 Between the gardens and the undistinguished interior/exterior there’s no sense of directed movement, instead visitors encouraged to drift and be immersed within the depths and layers of visual effects.
Figures top to bottom 21. Ground Floor Plan of Fondation Cartier showing unlimited movement and circulation through main exhibition space. 22. Top Floor Plan of the Blur Building showing directed circulation upon entering Angel Deck and exiting via one way stairs.
23. Image above of Fondation Cartier Exhibition space (ground level), showing open floorplan with large floor plates encouraging drifting from space to space.
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Figures top to bottom 24. Rooftop deck of Fondation Cartier with multiple door openings allowing multiple entry and exit points from interior to exterior. 25. Ground Floor of Fondation Cartier with wide acces through spaces.
Figures top to bottom 26. Stairway through the Blur Building, narrow and one direction encouraging constant movement in the same direction. 27. Angel Deck of the Blur Building with a linked up circulation directing traffic through the space.
Figures large then bottom right (small) 28. Angel Deck of the Blur Building with a direct circulation enouraging similar movements through the same space for visitors. 29. One of the starcases within the Blur Building no more than three people wide.
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CONCLUSION Critically observing and comparing these designs has showed some distinct differences although many similarities as well. The Blur Building wipes clean any notion of visual engagement, resulting in a minimalist ‘anti-spectacle’. Fondation Cartier created additional layers of reflections, the sky, surrounding nature and the street scape, adding the illusion between interior and exterior. Both projects create an artificial environment directly influenced by the site they sit. The Blur Building takes water as the key material to influence fog and a weather system influenced by the natural weather. Fondation Cartier similarly takes the surrounding context through reflections of light on the glass creates optical illusions. Both projects challenge perceptions and disorientates the public through these new created environments. Each project offers a different experience of circulation. Drifting is encouraged through open floor plans and large garden spaces in Fondation Cartier, while Blur Building has a direct path with less space for visitors to interpret their own movement. While these projects both share a concern of visual and sensorial qualities, they are distinctly different offering very different perspectives on the world in which we know.
Figures top to bottom 30. The Blur Building while experiencing fog. 31. Fondation Cartier Historic Tree and glass facade.
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ENDNOTES 1. 2. 3. 4.
9. Ekman, Ulrik. 2009. Irreducible Vagueness: Mixed Worlding in Diller & Scofidio’s Blur 10. Building. Postmodern Culture 19, no. 2 Slessor, Catherine. Blurring Reality The Architectural Review; Sep 2002; 212, 1267. p. 46 11. Diller, Elizabeth. 2005. Blur Building Yverdon-les-Bains, Swiss Expo .02. Information zur Raumentwicklung Heft I.
5. 6. 7.
Mitnick, Keith; Diller, Elizabeth; Scofidio, Ricardo. 2004. Diller And Scofidio. Ann Arbor. Michigan. University of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. p. 325
12.
Richards, Brent; Gilbert, Dennis. 2006. New Glass Architecture / Brent Richards; Photographs by Denis Gilbert. London: Laurence King Print. Print: p. 56 – 65
Mitnick, Keith; Diller, Elizabeth; Scofidio, Ricardo. 2004. Diller And Scofidio. Ann Arbor. Michigan. University of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. p. 144
13.
Cairns, Graham. 2013. The Architecture of the Screen: Essays in Cinematographic Space. Bristol, England. Intellect Books Ltd. p. 276
Cairns, Graham. 2013. The Architecture of 14. the Screen : Essays in Cinematographic Space. Bristol, England. Intellect Books Ltd. p. 275 15. Mitnick, Keith, Elizabeth Diller, and Ricardo Scofidio. 2004. Diller And Scofidio. Ann Arbor, Mich: Univ. of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning,
Blurring Reality by Slessor, Catherine The Architectural Review; Sep 2002; 212, 1267. p. 46
8.
Cairns, Graham. 2013. The Architecture of the Screen: Essays in Cinematographic Space. Bristol, England, Intellect Books Ltd. p. 275
Mitnick, Keith, Elizabeth Diller, and Ricardo Scofidio. 2004. Diller And Scofidio. Ann Arbor, Mich: Univ. of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, p. 325 Ekman, Ulrik. 2009. Irreducible Vagueness: Mixed Worlding in Diller & Scofidio’s Blur Building. Postmodern Culture 19, no. 2 Richards, Brent; Gilbert, Dennis. 2006. New Glass Architecture / Brent Richards; Photographs by Denis Gilbert. London: Laurence King Print. Print: p. 56 – 65
Nouvel, Jean Ateliers. Cartier Foundation For Contemporary Art And Cartier Headquarters. 2020. Accessed 30 August 2020. http://www.jeannouvel.com/en/ projects/fondation-cartier-2/.
p. 325
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IMAGE CREDITS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Boegly, L. 2014, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporian. Paris. Photograph Log. 2013. Fall, n.1, p. 9-26, Photograph, Illustrations, Drawings.
Log. 2003 Fall, n.1, p.9-26, Photographs, Drawings, Illustrations
Ibid, 179. Photograph (original colour)
Photomontage. Schulz, Renae. 2020. Overlayed Blur Building: Interior, 2002, Diller Scofidio and Renfro. Video (screenshot)
Photomontage. Schulz, Renae. 2020. Overlayed Blur Building: Interior, 2002, Diller Scofidio and Renfro. Video (screenshot)
7.
Photomontage. Schulz, Renae. 2020. Overlayed Blur Building: Interior, 2002, Diller Scofidio and Renfro. Video (screenshot)
8.
Photographer Unknown. Image courtesy of Theredilist
9. 10. 11.
Photomontage. Schulz, Renae. 2020. Overlayed Boegly, L. 2014, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporian. Paris. Photograph Photomontage. Schulz, Renae. 2020. Overlayed Photographer Unknown. Image courtesy of https://www.fondationcartier.com/en/building, accessed 30 August 2020 Photomontage. Schulz, Renae. 2020. Overlayed Photographer Unknown, image courtesy of Hotel Aigolon Paris via https://www.paris- hotel-aiglon.com/en/hotel-fondation-cartier, accessed 30 August 2020
12. 13. 11. 12. 13.
Photomontage. Schul, Renae. 2020. Overlayed Photographer Unknown. Image courtesy ofhttps:// www.fondationcartier.com/en/building, accessed 30 August 2020
19. 20. 21.
Ekman, Ulrik. 2009. Irreducible Vagueness: Mixed Worlding in Diller & Scofidio’s Blur Building. Postmodern Culture 19, no. 2
22. 21. 22.
14.
Martin, Reinhold. Diller + Scofidio (+Renfro) The Ciliary Function Works and Projects 1979-2009. Italy: (all unidentified iconographic sources), 2007
15.
Schulz, Renae. 2020.
16.
Boegly, L. 2013, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporian. Paris. Photograph (original colour)
17. 18.
Schulz, Renae. 2020. Redrawn from A & U: architecture & urbanism, 2006 May, n.5(428), p.[62]-73, photographs, sketches, models, elevations, sections, details, diagrams
Slessor, Catherine. Blurring Reality The Architectural Review; Sep 2002; 212, 1267. p. 46 Mitnick, Keith; Diller, Elizabeth; Scofidio, Ricardo. 2004. Diller And Scofidio. Ann Arbor. Michigan. University of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. p. 325 Schulz, Renae. 2020.
Martin, Reinhold. Diller + Scofidio (+Renfro) The Ciliary Function Works and Projects 1979-2009. Italy: (all unidentified iconographic sources), 2007
Schulz, Renae. 2020. Redrawn from Ibid, 59 Ibid, 58 Ibid, 65 (with modifications in colour) Architectural review, 2002 Sept., v.212, n.1267, p.46-47, photographs, plans, site plans (with modificaions in colour)
29. 30. 31.
Modified. Log. 2013. Fall, n.1, p. 9-26, Photograph, Illustrations, Drawings. Blur Building: Interior, 2002, Diller Scofidio and Renfro. Video (screenshot) Boegly, L. 2013, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporian. Paris. Photograph (original colour)
Mitnick, Keith; Diller, Elizabeth; Scofidio, Ricardo. 2004. Diller And Scofidio. Ann Arbor. Michigan. University of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. p. 144 Cairns, Graham. 2013. The Architecture of the Screen : Essays in Cinematographic Space. Bristol, England. Intellect Books Ltd. p. 275
23.
Modifided. Boegly, L. 2014, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporian. Paris. Photograph
24.
Modified. Ibid, 149
25. 26. 27. 28.
Modified. Ibid, 60 Modified. Martin, Reinhold. Diller + Scofidio (+Renfro) The Ciliary Function Works and Projects 1979-2009. Italy: (all unidentified iconographic sources), 2007 Modified. Ibid, 149 Modified. Martin, Reinhold. Diller + Scofidio (+Renfro) The Ciliary Function Works and Projects 1979-2009. Italy: (all unidentified iconographic sources), 2007
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