Robert Paton Academic Portfolio 091597757
Contents Page 4 Spectres of Utopia Page 44 Manhattan on the Maas Page 69 Percepolis Page 73 Critical Reflection
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Spectres of Utopia and Modernity Return of the Repressed
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Critical Introduction
With the Knowledge gained from our previous study based in Rotterdam, the project starts with an investigation into examples of modern architecture spanning its formative years in the 1920s and 30s and post war examples from 1945-1960 residing in Rotterdam, with the challenge and target of capturing the ghosts of modernity within in them. Aligned with the understanding that each building also harbours in it a spectre of Utopia. Perhaps not the threat of Utopia, and the dangerous connotations of incomplete vision, but maybe the possibility and anticipation. Rotterdam history is inevitably entwined with the war with its centre nearly completely flattened as a result of a Nazi Blitz on 14 may 1940. Thus the harbouring of utopia is more palpable, as a modernist urban plan was applied to the city as the city lay in ruins, emptied of the traditional urbanism still visible in Amsterdam and other Dutch city’s zoning and the Car were given precedent. The building I chose to study is directly influenced by these factors and whose personal history is explicitly entwined with the city. De Bijenkorf department store was designed by marcel Breuer to sit at the heart of the new Basic Plan for Rotterdam and a jewel on the re drawn Coolsingel. The department store was constructed to replace it the original modernist building for the De Bijenkorf Department Store, built by Willem Dudok in 1929-1930 which had been devastatingly damaged during the bombing. Breuer began work on the department store in 1953, with construction completed in March of 1957. The new design was at the head of the curve for department design of the time incorporating a simple concrete structure to provide flexible floor space alongside minimising light to the interior with narrow windows into the shopping floor and only expanding those apertures into restaurant and cafe areas. The façade was clad in a hexagonal pattern of travertine marble, a reference to the name of the department store which translates as beehive. The Bijenkorf is then entangled with this one defining moment for the city that occurred on the 14 may 1940. Christopher Bollas’ article Architecture and the Unconscious and specifically the quote “When a building replaces another in the mind of someone who lived through these moments. There will always be two buildings in mind the obliterated and the existent” can then be applied to the site in terms of a treatment and an understanding of the ghosts of modernity. The obliterated can be read in terms of the site as the city pre-war, but it can also be seen as the city that existed in the moments and weeks following the bombing and subsequent fire. The mountains of rubble and ruins the momentary forms created by the destruction. This absent city of ruined Rotterdam persists as some kind of seminal moment creating both a break with the city before and as the repressed memory of the city.
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Orignal Bijenkorf The De Bijenkorf department store was designed by Willem Dudok in 1929-1930, but during the 1940 blitz of Rotterdam by the Luftwaffe was severely damaged meaning that upon the reconstruction of Rotterdam the Bijenkorf department store group decided against reconstructing the original modernist brick building and instead asked Marcel Breuer to design its replacement at a new location.
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Breuer’s Bijenkorf Breuer began work on the department store in 1953, with construction completed in March of 1957. The new design was at the head of the curve for department design of the time incorporating a simple concrete structure to provide flexible floor space alongside minimising light to the interior with narrow windows into the shopping floor and only expanding those apertures into restaurant and cafe areas. The façade was clad in a hexagonal pattern of travertine marble, a reference to the name of the department store which translates as beehive.
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Location Map 8
Travertine Beehive The facades are covered with travertine, partly hexagonal honeycomb shape. The panels are chiselled, that is, with a ripple pattern. This pattern in alternating directions and over the years has accumulated pollution from the cars using the city, forming dark patterns across their surfaces.
Travertine Cladding Detail 9
Thinking Through Making Thinking through making week allowed us to experiment with materials and their properties. I focused on casting and consistency of concrete and its degradation properties.
Thinking Through Making Models
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Total Design I used existing drawings from Breuer’s in an attempt to recreate one of the door handles designed for the Bijenkorf, an item that fitted into Breuer’s philosophy of total design. Creating the joints in the wood whist backing it with a metal plate.
Bijenkorf Handle Detail Model
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Existing Structure The Bijenkorf was built as a concrete mushroom column and slab construction. The slab has a constant thickness and is only carried at the columns, therfore the shear forces and bending moments are greater over the columns than elsewhere. To absorb the forces, Robert Maillart (1872-1940) proposed widening the tops of the columns. The arrangement of flared column heads below a slab was variously known as ‘mushroom columns’, ‘mushroom slabs’ or ‘beamless slabs’. This construction allowed maximum flexible floor space allocation, as well as minimum slab thickness and quick construction. The Bijenkorf ’s columns sit at 12m centres.
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Axo Exploded
Ghost Analytique
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This Analytique describes all of the elements that I believe create the conscious Bijenkorf in the mind of the visitor. The façade is the most memorable element while the flexible floor plan and columns sink into the background. The final element are the central escalators which transport the customers between the floors, and acts as a locating moment.
“When a building replaces another in the mind of someone who lived through these moments, there will always be two buildings in mind the obliterated and the existent.” C. Bollas Architecture and The Unconscious
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Kruiskade
Hoogstraat
Abstracting Ruins Based on my reading of Bollas I began to dissect the unconscious of the site. This I see as as the ruined city in its moment of most potential, the moment at which it had suffered a trauma.
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Geldersakade
Coolsingel
Bijenkorf Dudok
Boompjes
These six Images are those that could be located on a current map of Rotterdam. These six images describe the city after the events of the 14th may. My process began byabstracting the architectural ruins from them. Using the scale of the Bijenkorf and a grid to locate my abstractions.
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Bombing Mapped
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Design Development The abstractions began to inform a plan, the difficulty was how to bring these elements into the Bijenkorf, I chose to use the locating point of the escalators as a fulcrum to anchor my drawings, thus using the conscious to help ground and implement these new forms.
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Abstraction Process Through my research I began to address the reality of the bombing. The processes and movements that orchestrated the event. The two fleets of bombers flew over the city in two distinct movements from the east and the south. I believe these two movements have shaped the new city and unconsciously formed a grid over it. Thus I used this new grid to distort the three dimensional structure of the Bijenkorf. Its rational architecture now deformed by the unconscious.
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Design Development
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Exploded Plane Drawing
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Organisational Concept In an attempt to understand Bollas’s words I had researched and delved into Freud’s ideas of the unconscious mind, and how he began to divide it into the conscious, unconscious and pre-conscious.The pre conscious being the moments of flux between the two defining parts. The function that the Bijenkorf would then take became clear through using these ideas as organisational strategy. The unconscious acts as a void within the building, a memorial to the destruction of Rotterdam, the preconscious are the forms constructed around this, and act as museum, or active memorial. And finally the conscious or existing structure of the Bijenkorf becomes a research centre a building that helps develop thinking into the layers of the city whilst constantly in relation to the unconscious.
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Massing Site Model
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Ground Floor Plan
Third Floor Plan 25
Stanton Williams Whitby Abbey Visitor Centre
Richard Serra Sculpture
Gordon Matta Clark Artwork
Detail and Structure Precedents
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Detail and Structure Development
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Existing Structure
New structure applied
Failure of existing structure, and detachment from new.
Structural Stratergy Applying the Unconscious structure to the Conscious Structure
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New steel structure
Existing Bijenkorf structure with failed floor slabs.
Structural Stratergy Applying the Unconscious structure to the Conscious structure
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Lighting and Material Model
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Plan Detail 1. Suspended Metal Grate 2. Interior Corten Cladding 3. Vertical Fixing rail 4. Steel fixing fixed back to plywood 5. 18mm Plywood 6. Vapour Barrier
7. Steel Columns 8. Kingspan Insulation 9. DPM membrane 10. Exterior Corten Cladding 11. Existing Concrete Mushroom Column
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Mid Floor Detail 1. Cable bolted to existing slab 2. Interior Corten cladding 3. Vertical fixing rail 4. Steel fixing fixed back to plywood 5. 18mm plywood 6. Vapour barrier
7. Steel columns 8. Kingspan insulation 9. DPM membrane 10. Exterior Corten cladding 11. Existing concrete mushroom column 12. Glazing
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13. Suspended metal grate flooring 14. Secondary steel support
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Roof and Foundation Detail 1. Existing concrete roof deck 2. Interior Corten cladding 3. Vertical fixing rail 4. Steel fixing fixed back to plywood 5. 18mm plywood 6. Vapour barrier
7. Steel columns 8. Kingspan insulation 9. DPM membrane 10. Exterior Corten cladding 11. Existing concrete mushroom column 12. Existing pile foundation
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13. New pile foundation 14. Steel fixing plate 15. Timber packer 16. Drainage pipe 17. New suspended timber floor 18. Glazing 19. Guttering
Environmental Stratergy The seperation of conscious and unconscious follows hrough material juxtaposition and structural strategy right down to the environmental strategy. The conscious part of the building makes use of the existing structure and faรงade but retrofits it for the future. Using the existing tall ceilings, thermal mass of the slab and flexible floor plan to create a passive system operation and to minimise energy consumption. Whilst wrapping the building in a new layer of insulation, the installation of openable glazing that will help to create a passive faรงade. The unconscious strategy for the environment is the use of a ground source heat pump to help heat the building distributed by underfloor heating. The layers of ground heat below the site previously unused acts to efficiently heat the building.
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Thermal Mass The use of existing concrete slab minimises the carbon footprint whilst leaving it exposed allows its use as a thermal mass. Cooling during the day and heating at night.
Environmental Stratergies Conscious
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Adaptability Attaching cabling trunking and lighting to the underside of the concrete slab and not concealing it allows adatability as the building ages. Also providing oversized service cores flexible floor plans avoids obsolescence.
Passive Ventilation The use of existing facade including new double glazed openable windows allow the users full control. With trickle vents to allow ventilation in winter Alongside passive stack ventilation between the floors increases the ventilated floor plan to 14m.
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Soak Away Water Bore Hole Water
Expansion Valve
Condenser
Evaporator
Compressor
Heating System Water Return Hot Water to Heating System
Ground source heat pump draws energy from the layers of ground beneath the site of the bijenkorf tapping into the energy of Rotterdams past to heat rotterdams future development. The heat pump cycles the energy around and up through the planes to serve every floor.
Environmental Stratergies Unconscious
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Geothermal Radial Drilling A system which allows for sustainable heat extraction from a wider ground source. Radial drilling draws its heat by spacing bores at varying angles ensuring that the highest possible ratio of watts per metre is achieved.
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Street View
Tower
Gallery
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Sectional Axonometric
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Section Section
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Manhattan on the Maas Occupation The Kop Van Zuid masterplan was intended to be the catalyst that brought these two communities together. It has failed. The people of Feyernoord in the south have a front row seat to a development they cannot enjoy or afford. My project, Occupation, is a reactionary proposal to the Kop Van Zuid.
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Critical Introduction
The project begins with the study and dissection of Rotterdam. Understanding the existing and the possible urban themes within the city is integral to tackling any proposal. The brief asked for an urban intervention that incorporated or challenged one of these critical themes, alongside a group strategy or focus concentrating the approach. Initially Rotterdam seems to be an archetypal port city, centred around the river, economically and socially dependent on the port. However its unique historical context allows a deeper analysis to be drawn. The city, since its destruction during the Second World War, has been a breeding ground for experimental architecture. The studio Manhattan on the Maas focused on the masterplan of the Kop van Zuid, a peninsula of land that lies on the South bank of the River Maas. Historically, the area operated as a significant port area with docks, a shipyard and terminal for ocean liners. Kop Van Zuid was abandoned as a port in the 1960’s when the dockyards moved further down the river towards the mouth of the Maas. The Wilhelminapier, was also the former location of the Holland America Line which operated passenger lines between the Netherlands and North America. In the early 1990s a masterplan was put in place to develop the area as a point of origin for the further redevelopment of the south of Rotterdam. The area gained the nomenclature Manhattan on the Maas for its high rise ambition and associations with New York. The second stage was to study this masterplan and its context in relation to Rem Koolhaas’ “Retrospective Manifesto”, Delirious New York. It maps Koolhaas’ theories on metropolitan urbanism, density and Manhattanism from its birth place on Coney Island to several proposals of his own that embody the attributes he discusses. Koolhaas’s ideas of congestion can be seen on the Kop van Zuid. De Rotterdam, the architect’s addition to the masterplan, embodies many of Koolhaas’ ideas. This brief asked us to identify the various themes and fragments of Manhattanism that Kop Van Zuid already embodies and to use them as a tool to intensify these fragments. In doing so we would create a proposal and critical mass of high rises that would exist separately but, in collaboration, create an absurd whole. The site which I studied sits at the boundary of the Kop van Zuid masterplan. The point where the commercial buildings and high income residential apartments end, and the low income Feyernoord district of Afrikanderwiijk begins. This is a clear collision point between two cultures. Occupation will be inhabited by the people of the south. Rotterdam and especially the south of Rotterdam grew out of the need for housing for workers in the ports and thus was centred around the industry and in this vein my proposal for a new district in the sky will centre around a contemporary industry. The housing of Feyernoord is symbiotic with the port. Created for the port workers the area went into decline as the port left. By establishing a new industry and discarding the unhealthy link to the north the people of Feyernord can allow their half of the city to flourish. Through my reading of Delirious New York, I identified several fragments that I used as agents in the development of my proposal. Initially the idea of the Ferrisian Void, “A pitch black Architectural womb that gave birth to the consecutive stages of the Skyscraper” helped to inform my design, as did the blue dome of Creation, an attraction that existed on Coney Island. However I also believe my proposal embodies some of Koolhaas’ attributes of Manhattanism, and I see it as an antithesis to De Rotterdam’s commercialism. I suggest that the City of Rotterdam is divided, a theme that runs deep within the city’s fabric. The Kop Van Zuid masterplan was intended to be the catalyst that brought these two communities together. It has failed. The people of Feyernoord in the south have a front row seat to a development they cannot enjoy or afford. My project, Occupation, is a reactionary proposal to the Kop Van Zuid.
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The Limit My process began with identifying the key themes on my site. My site was site ten at the edge of our masterplan. Drawing from this I defined one theme as the idea of the limit. Sitting on the boundary between the high income area of the Kop Van Zuid and the low income area of Feyernoord. The top drawing is a collage representing this division.
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Housing Typology Study The second theme was the idea of housing. On my site sits Hillekop a social housing development by Mecanoo. With this in mind I studied various housing types from across Feyernoord.
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The final theme for my design was the symbiotic relationship between the housing and industry. A study of the historical development of Feyernoord reveals the connection which has been left absent by the removal of the port.
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Initial Axo
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Delirious New York Through my reading of Delirious New York, I identified several fragments that I used as agents in the development of my proposal. Initially the idea of the Ferrisian Void, “A pitch black Architectural womb that gave birth to the consecu-tive stages of the Skyscraper� helped to inform my design, as did the blue dome of Creation, an attraction that existed on Coney Island. Combining this with the themes from my site of Housing, Limit and Industry, I developed a critical mass to place onto the site.
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Symposium Mass Axonometric
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Blue Dome of Creation The mass of the dome on the site became a tool for further development of my idea. I took the form and its footprint to inform a grid which I preceded to lay over a figure ground drawing of Afrikaanderwijk.
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Grid Over Afrikaanderwijk
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The process of dividing this grid and then further study of the voids manages to separate the final drawing from its origins. The final stage was to arrange the forms in terms of density, intended as an analysis of vacancy within Rotterdam itself.
The next stage was the arrangement of these forms into a tower, creating a monolithic block drawing the nearby district representatively into the sky. This was my proposal at the interim crit. The building acted as housing and factory for the production of facades
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Interim Crit Axonometric
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At this point my proposal tackled two of the themes I had identified, Housing and industry. However I had not managed to accommodate the idea of Limit and tackle the division within Rotterdam. Using proportions and scale that i had revealed with my housing study of Feyernoord, I began to divide the tower. The 10 towers created became a dividing element between the two halves of Rotterdam.
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Axonometric
Final Axonometric
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Mapped Voids
Layered Plates
Axonometric Development
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Tower
Split Tower
Dividing Tower
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High Level Street
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Accomodation
Industry
Entrance from Kop Van Zuid
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Housing Plan
Industry Plan 62
Housing Level
Entrance Level
Industry Level
Tower Exploded Axonemetric 63
Long Section looking towards Kop Van Zuid
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Full Site Model Blue foam Massing
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Charette Percepolis The current genericism of architecture poses a constant threat of over-familiarity and spatial boredom. Using unsubscribed acts of motion and coercion we are activating perception and changing engagement with familiar space, exploring specificity of place. Newcastle was the focus of this investigation, whereby various ‘characteristic poles’ were discovered, each linked to site use or time frame: compression - expansion, night - day, overload underwhelm, common haunt - secret hangout.
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Design In group sessions we sat, discussed and designed our installation. A Student led design team, with 5th and 6th years acting as group leaders. Using themes presented byu the tutors, and some we carried through from our research in the city.
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Design Technology The project required the design and implementation of proximity systems. Using Auduino boards and standard lamps and speakers a network was created allowing sensory overload in desired areas within the room.
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Construction The group self divided into various teams, including construction, sound, design and electronics. The space developed organically around the available materials and skill set of the team.
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Final Installation
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Critical Reflection Primarily Stage 5 has developed my understanding and applyication of architectural theory, beginning with the reading and comprehension of Koolhaas’ Delirious New York, and further readings of Bollas Lefebvre, Tschumi and Pallasma have all influenced my design intentions over the year. The first project acted as a great way to start applying critical thinking, both philosophical and architectural. Plan Rotterdam was based on strategies at an urban scale allowing me to make more ambitious moves in terms of critical position and architectural language. Delirous was an interesting read but the aspect of Koolhaas’ writings that influenced me more than any other were his narrative devices in critiquing urban theory. A technique that seems to leave his theory unequivocal and engaging. In my second project I developed an iterative style of design, drawing influence in process from Eisenmann, Libeskind and Tschumi. It was this style of drawing based process which interested me at the beginning of the year, and I am happy I addressed and learnt more from it however both theoretically and practically it proposes numerous problems. It is a style I would like to move away from when confronting my thesis work. Something I touched on in the first semester was a focus on socially conscious design, however it appeared at a large scale and without applying any sort of detail to it. Ideally I would want apply the theoretical knowledge and processes that I have learnt this year, with a focus on the human scale. Finally my dissertation subject is focused on film and architecture and this research had an undeniable influence on my design work in the second half of the year, and I believe will follow through into my thesis work.
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