PA S S A G E
R E U B E N H O R E - W AT E R H O U S E , AFFECTIVE GEOMETRIES, 2016
Position - Background
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Precedents
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Model Exploration
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Protoform - Passage
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Site
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Passage
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Appendix
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Geometric forms are often being built that are stagnant, encompassing processes of unprecedented built form that fail to consider climatic, atmospheric or positional conditions and are simply constructed to look ‘interesting, but with no real value’ (Naito, 2013). However, Hiroshi Naito (2013) argues that to truly create value one must consider design as ‘situational’, responding to the effects of existing emerging climatic, circumstantial and atmospheric conditions (Naito, 2013). Consequently, an affective geometry is constructed to insight affect, inviting a response aimed to elicit a much deeper understanding of presence within an inhabitant in what it truely means to be ‘here’ (Charney, 1998).
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Passage aims to re-create connections that are otherwise diminishing or being lost, by making a linear connection, through the cut, between the memorial site and the diminishing view of the walled ocean. Ultimately, it aims to re-build this connection by inviting reflection on the relationship between these landscapes following the March 11, 2011 Tsunami on Japan. It is the situational landscape, this passage, that responds to site conditions and past events and does not sit in its own stagnant entity as a parasite. Instead, it seamlessly blends moments of material and form into the landscape, as an emerging form that organically mimics that of the man-made landform raising of the inner coastline plane.
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It is this notion of the cut that offers a window into a specific atmosphere or presence, allowing the inhabitant to build a relationship between both inside and out through not only experiencing the space but also responding to their own circumstances within (Buck, 2000). Ultimately, the cut invites an enclosed, experience of immersion, with only singular linear space into which you can see that becomes the frame for which atmosphere is built. The traditional material construction techniques that are used in the cut play a vital role in creating this seamless merging of atmospheres within the surrounding landscape condition; the cumulative build-up of these singular atmospheric material moments are the fraction of a larger ‘present’, ‘here-ness’ and the atmosphere of site and space (Pallasmaa, 2013).
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In this research document I will endeavour to closely examine the role of the cut and explore what it means to use the act of cutting or unearthing to further reconnect the now diminishing relationship the Japanese people have to their coastal environment. The study simultaneously analyses and uncovers what form and material can offer in terms of creating an atmospheric condition that reflects on the March 11, 2011 tsunami disaster on Hashikami. 07
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PRECEDENTS Line Material Experience Connection
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It was through looking at projects such as Bunker 599 by RAAAF and Aterlier Lyon and Double Negative by Michael Heizer that one can start to interrogate the atmospheric conditions that a cut can make, promoting a visual connection through its linearity within the landscape and material in which builds its atmospheric condition. The physical disconnection created by chasm in which it cuts - Double Negative alternatively visually makes reference to the other side through its visual reference and line within the landscape. It invites contemplation in its scale as a feature in the large chasm landscape, revealing the ground condition and material in which it is cut.
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D O U B L E N E G AT I V E - M I C H A E L H E I Z E R - N E VA D A
A bunker that would otherwise be blocked off from view: Bunker599 slices through, revealing the interior of the bunker’s rich history, creating a connection to the surrounding landscape and people that would otherwise be non-existent in its whole form. It provides an experience and story in which people can walk through and engage with its materiality and its historical marks and defects. A long wooden boardwalk cuts through the bunker into the flooded area and to the adjacent footpaths of the nature reserve, mimicking the shallow water inundation line in times of war. It is these symbolic gestures of materials and form that highlight and contrast past history, making the landscape rich for the inhabitant to not only experience and reflect on what it means to be in conflict, but to experience what it truely means to be within this landscape.
B U N K E R 5 9 9 - R A A A F + A T E L I E R LY O N - N E T H E R L A N D S 11
A worn footprint ridden track that suggests a journey, elucidating time and distance as the linear line joins to adjacent spaces. The linear line is a powerful one. We can see it in many different ways; as a divide, or an attempt to make something noticed and to facilitate direction (Long, 1986). Richard Long’s work, Walking a line in Peru, is a powerful but simple gesture that begins to illustrate the landscape from his bodily experience of walking. It is through the line, especially in documented photographs, that one can begin to understand the journey and the powerful symbol that the line represents; a sense of direction and a suggestion in which to tackle the meaning of an infinite landscape.
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It was this type of process that stood out to me when thinking about the materiality of the cut. The materiality and process of creating this landscape told a much deeper story, and this story is something that would later influence me in choosing traditional materials and construction techniques.
WALKING A LINE IN PERU 1972 - RICHARD LONG 13
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M O D E L E X P L O R AT I O N
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It is through individual research and exploration of the ‘protoform’ that we are able to spatialise formal implementations as well as test conditions of sun, shade and scale for a changing atmospheric condition.
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These models explore the technique of the tear, as well as the intrude and extrude, as a way of acting in the landscape and responding to a seamless transitional form between the original landscape formation. It is this “protoscape� that enables form design to avoid the stylistic influence of our common era, but instead exercise the right structural form for a desired utility (Naito, 2013). It was through this exploration of different spacial forms or passages that a process of discovery of fluctuating atmospheric conditions that respond to site was enabled.
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Layering became the main protagonist in my model investigation. The physical layering enabled the spacial exploration of a much more organic spacial form, free from the confinements of the precise geometric lines of cutting. Instead each tear became a new discovery of spacial form and informed how this new form would perform spatially suggesting organic material and its spacial quality which I endeavour to explore.
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These models explore the notion of the cut, including materiality as well as depth and width comparative to the inhabitant as a means of creating different atmospheric conditions. It was also important to consider that each model was not constructed with an intended scale; the scale was also a variable, again changing the atmosphere.
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PROTOFORM -
PA S S A G E
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In exploring material through using the bending sheet as one piece, the passage emerged and the cut became a disruption or divide in an otherwise seamless mounded piece of card. The cut became the subject; how big is the cut given the exploration of other models? How does one transition into the cut, and how is it viewed from the landscape around? How does it act with sunlight?
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The form became a point of discovery. One cannot understand the form until either looking straight on to the linear cut or being within, as it would otherwise just be a mound from adjacent angles. And the emerging landscape evolved.
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The transition journey became the space where one could slowly become immersed into the passage and its key role; to frame, to draw a connection that would slowly become apparent through the linear cut.
TRANSITION 29
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SITE HASHIKAMI, KESENNUMA, M I YA G I P R E F E C T U R E
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How would I choreograph the discovery of this emerging landscape? How do I reveal it and at what points? How would it sit on existing landscape? The site was chosen due to its location, in being able to linearly connect the ocean to the designated school memorial that did not conflict with any sea walls on the adjacent coastline. The linear cut was lined up with that of a small road, running perpendicular to the ocean and the school, which would become the main point of discovery as people took their journey. The site was also a designated evacuation site, where many people ended up losing their lives in the tragedy. As such, the site is an important point of remembrance and reflection for the Japanese people.
It became apparent that this form, this new landscape, would become a focal point in the landscape for inhabitants to draw connection. But as time proceeds, and the raising of coastal plain begins, the form will slowly become its own landscape foreshadowed by the overwhelming infrastructure and earthworks. It will then become a rare glimpse of the past and a historical juxtaposition between old and new.
SCHOOL
SITE
OCEAN
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PA S S A G E
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GROWTH Vegetation offered a medium to keep the seamless transition between landscape and form, retaining a natural relationship with the environment that is free from imposed styles and controlled nature. It is an environment where people can reflect on the traditional craftsmanship of the stone walls that juxtapose the controlled environment that is built around them. The cut will become consumed in growth, that changes from season to season; a shifting atmospheric condition that highlights a process of time and a symbol of life and hope.
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The role of the cut is to open a hole in time; a chasm that can be pulled out, recognised and studied in order to understand a ‘here- ness’ that is grounded in a series of embodied moments that build a profile of what it is to be ‘here’ in both past and present. It is this individual collection of embodied moments of materials, views and ephemeral qualities that define our concepts of the ‘here’ is and provides the base to draw connections to our environment and to reflect on alternative spaces and time.
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“… our perception and understanding does not process from details towards entity but the other way around: from entity to details. This is an essential aspect of atmosphere: it is an immediate experience of the whole, the entity, and only later can one distinguish the details that are part of it.” - Pallasmaa, J. (2013). Atmosphere, Compassion and Embodied Experience.
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How do we respond to the increasing disconnection of the environment caused by the raising of the inner coastline plain?
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E M E R G I N G S T R AT E G Y It was the process of the cut that provided a strategy in which to act within the landscape. This rule can be implemented and can continue to be implemented for future infrastructure and coastal land raising, 20, 50 and 100 years away. I saw the notion of the cut as an opportunity to not only continue the connection throughout the stages of the landscape’s proposed raising, but also retaining the cut concept that may be used elsewhere. Specifically, the newly established relationship may then be retained over time, by allowing the cut to selectively facilitate what relationship and connection will be drawn in the landscape; we may frame symbolic monuments or places of hope and reflection, or simply restore the Japanese people’s relationship back to the environment following such a controlled and alienated current setting. 49
S T R AT E G Y A L L O C AT I O N O V E R T I M E As the raising of the inner coastline plain develops over time, passages are to be implemented to counter the visual disconnection.
Ye a r
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Passage 1
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Passage 2
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Passage 3
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Passage 4
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Passage 5
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PASSAGE 5
PASSAGE 4
PASSAGE 3 PASSAGE 1
PASSAGE 2
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YEAR 1
YEAR 5
YEAR 20
“It is important to make connection between the external confinements of the space and not view space as its own entity but a series of moments built together that can invite a reaction and construct this situation.�
- Buck, D (2000). Responding to Chaos: Tradition, Technology, Society and Order in Japanese Design.
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CONCLUSION
The value of landscape is being neglected, confounded by a desire to tame the environment without consequences or consideration of what we’re losing. This emphasis on ‘utter protection’ has clouded the minds of creators, masking what is at stake both in the present and the not so distant future; we are building anthroposenic environments, landscapes that alienate and segregate us from our natural environment, surpassing the traditions and culture that the Japanese people cherish. The landscape holds real value that is now being obscured. It is imperative that we restore some of this cultural and environmental value. In Passage, simple techniques and strategies have been employed to aid in the restoration of this connection between the environment and the people. In understanding the landscape, culture and techniques of form and material, we can craft a new landscape that has real potential and value; one that is not stagnant, that evokes emotion and insights a response through the Passage. It is acts such as this that reconnect the people, enabling them to learn and experience their own environment, while also fulfilling a wider role: facilitating a way of acting within the landscape that can be implimented to improve the future.
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Journal / Book / Article: Charney, L. (1998). Empty Moments, Duke University Press: USA Naito, H. (2013). From Protoform to Protoscape 1. In Hiroshi Nation (1992-2004) Protoform to Protoscape 1, Japan: Toto Pallasmaa, J. (2013). Atmosphere, Compassion and Embodied Experience. OASE Foundation & NAi Publishers Buck, D (2000). Responding to Chaos: Tradition, Technology, Society and Order in Japanese Design. Taylor & Francis. Roelstaete, D. (2010). Richard Long: A Line Made by Walking. After Books: Berlin Image Credit: Michael Heizer, Double Negative, Accessed at: www.doublenegative. tarasen.net/double-negative/ 2/12/2016 RAAAF + Atelier Lyon, Bunker599, Accessed at: www.raaaf.nl/en/ projects/7_bunker_599/496 3/12/2016 Richard Long, Walking A Line in Peru 1972, Accessed at: richardlong.org 2/12/2016