2016 Undergraduate Thesis

SPATIAL AMBIGUITY IN ARCHITECTURE: A Bathhouse & Winery

Seema Sunil Samudre Virginia Tech Bachelor of Architecture 2016 College of Architecture and Urban Studies Advisor | Hilary Bryon

This thesis is a reflection of ideas and interests cultivated during my time at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and Riva san Vitale, Switzerland. The idea of spatial ambiguity and its effect on the human perception through the manipulation of surface materials and spatial boundaries first sparked my interest in Summer Lab 2012 as I began to investigate the phenomenal properties of transparent materials.

I continued to make discoveries and grow as a designer with the guidance and camaraderie of Virginia Tech’s architecture professors and my fellow studio-mates, of whom I hold the utmost respect. I cannot thank you all enough for standing by me through the all-nighters, brainstorms, tea breaks, and long pin-ups. I feel blessed to have been surrounded by architecture-nerds who share a general love and excitement for design.

Thank you, mom and dad, for your endless support and for setting the perfect example of hard work. Thank you, Hilary, for your countless encouragements and for always pushing me to strive for the best.

Winery program seeps into bathhouse program when fermentation tanks suspend over an icy bath

CONTENTS

SPATIAL AMBIGUITY Reflection in Architecture Barcelona Pavilion Reflection Conceptual vs Literal Transparency Travel Reflection

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LIMINAL SPACES

Thesis Inquiries Layered Spaces Study of Layered Transparencies Study of Water Reflections Study of Building Surface Reflections

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PROGRAMMATIC DUALITY A Bathhouse & Winery

Bathhouse Program | Optimal Linear Sequence Winery Program | Optimal Linear Sequence Programmatic Intersections Structural Studies Spatial Intersections Visitor and Worker Experience Process

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Barcelona Pavilion, Barcelona, Spain | Duality through

h reflection on a vertical building surface

SPATIAL AMBIGUITY Reflection in Architecture

During a travel expedition in Barcelona, Spain, I took a moment to sit and sketch the patterns on one of the flat, massive, polished onyx walls in Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. As well, I took another moment to admire its stature and the strong presence that towered over me and partially enclosed the space.

As I continued to meander through the pavilion, the orange glow of the sunset began to trickle in. When I circulated back around to the same heavy wall that I had become familiar with, the light had shifted and the nature of the space had completely changed.

The heavy, spatial boundary seemingly disappeared into a new dimension. Now, my surroundings visually extended into the reflective onyx, causing the room to appear ambiguously boundless and freshly enticing.

Prompted by this wondrous discovery, this thesis investigates reflection in architecture and its effect on human perception of spatial realities.

BARCELONA PAVILION REFLECTION

Reflections on the chrome wrapped columns and polished travertine walls

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Reflection on glass blurs exterior and interior boundaries, and inside with outside

The architect has immense control over the individual’s perception of space. For instance, implementing reflective materials in a space allows several facets in which building surfaces can be perceived and reinterpreted as spatial boundaries. By engaging a material’s reflective properties, the architect challenges a viewer to see beyond what is physically present and, in turn, reveals a new level of depth within an architectural space.

Questions of Duality and Dimensionality through Reflection Through reflection, a non-physical depth begins to presence itself in contrast to, or in

coherence with, a surface or an individual.

This depth is characterized by duality -- a dichotomy between physical and non-physical spatial or human existence, and dimensionality -- a visual extension of spatial boundaries.

Throughout history, architects have strategically fostered these concepts through the use of reflective surfaces, either to evoke a sense of embodiment within architecture or to create a sense of multiple or broadened views. Mies van der Rohe tackles the questions of duality and dimensionality in his design of the Barcelona Pavilion with the use of reflective building surfaces: water, glass, chrome, and polished stone.

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Reflection on glass and columns creates ambiguous spatial boundary

Reflections on Building Surfaces The Barcelona Pavilion serves as an example in which the reflectivity of building materials and their surfaces is crucial to structuring an individual’s experience within the architecture. For example, mirrored images of building surfaces completely abstract the materiality of reflective objects and allow one to perceive them as invisible. Steel columns wrapped in polished chrome, which are placed throughout the pavilion, mirror the surroundings and seemingly disappear within the spatial boundaries created by the off-grid wall planes. This creates an extended spatial dimension and the sense of an unin-

terrupted, free plan for visitors to meander through, with spatial eddies directed by the wall planes. Additionally, Mies implemented highly polished, vertical surfaces such as onyx and travertine walls that reflect the image of visitors. As one wanders through the space, he experiences moments of duality in which he becomes one with the architecture itself through his own non-physical reflection in the vertical plane of the wall masses.

Throughout the space, a visitor is always followed by his reflection and by other visitors’ reflections, adding an atmosphere of dynamism and liveliness within the simultaneously heavy and ephemeral wall enclosures.

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Reflections on Water Water is often used for its reflective purposes. The Barcelona Pavilion is an architectural example in which reflecting pools are strategically placed to create a sense of duality between a material boundary and its reflection onto a horizontal surface.

Upon entering the Barcelona Pavilion, a shallow reflecting pool becomes visible, extending across an expansive, travertine plinth that holds a series of walled enclosures covered by a seemingly floating, flat roof plane.

As one steps onto the plinth and observes the floating roof, the perception of a low, hovering, horizontal boundary reinforces its existence through its reflection in the shallow pool. This horizontal reinforcement narrows the visitor’s line of site and draws the individual further into a space of framed views.

As one meanders through the continuous, open space of displaced, off-grid walls, an additional exterior reflecting pool, lined with black, reflective stone, lies on the opposite side of the building. Its tightly enclosed walls, a framed view of a sculpted figure, and the sky reflect onto the water’s surface. The mirrored images in this small reflecting pool allow one to perceive an instance of duality where the sky meets the earth on a horizontal plane. This juxtaposition of the physical sky and its non-physical reflection in the water begins to cultivate a sense of meditation, and invites a visitor to question the idea of being and non-being.

Reflection in water reinforces low, horizontal roof

Material duality through reflection on water

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Ghostly reflection on glass

Reflections on Glass Mies van der Rohe also utilized the reflective qualities of glass in the Barcelona Pavilion to manipulate visitors’ perceptions of spatial boundaries. Similar to the other reflective building materials, the glass reflects an individual’s own image. When an image is reflected from a distance, the glass gives the impression of a ghostly image rather than a mirrored condition of duality, adding another layer of dynamism to the walls.

The interior glass also reflects exterior images and adjacent walls, which begins to blur the definition of interior and exterior by bringing exterior images to the interior.

As building surfaces reflect onto the glass, the substance seems to dematerialize into an extended dimension, and the visitor begins to experience a vaporization of mass within the space. The reflections in glass cause the spatial boundaries to become ambiguous, and promote a sense of release inside and outside the wall enclosures. Through the manipulation of reflective surfaces, one’s perception of a space can be completely altered. Mies implemented reflectivity of materials to create duality and dimensionality with various levels in the Barcelona Pavilion.

Simple reflectivity can captivate an individual and take one into new spatial realms.

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Inverted spatial reflection on the water’s surface

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CONCEPTUAL VS LITERAL TRANSPARENCY

Kunsthaus, Bregenz, Austria | Reflection on a horizontal concrete surface

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Kunsthaus, Bregenz, Austria | Reflection on vertical and horizontal building surfaces

“Transparency means a simultaneous perception of different spatial locations. Space not only recedes but fluctuates in a continuous activity” (Kepes, Rowe & Slutzky, 1982).

Similar to the way in which one’s perception of space is altered through Mies’ uses of reflective materials, Peter Zumthor uses reflective materiality in the Kunsthaus, Bregenz.

On the interior, the frosted glass enclosure reflects onto the smooth, glossy concrete.

Through this reflection, the character of the edge dissolves into what seems like the

hazy horizon of Lake Constance, which lies in the distance beyond the Kunsthaus. The glass enclosure is parallel to the sky and the concrete floor is like the water, which visitors can glide upon. Conceptual transparency is introduced as a visage of lake-ness and is visually perceived as almost tangible due to the reflective opaque concrete and translucent glass. The literal transparency of the glass enclosure allows natural light, but not view, to seep in. The fluctuation between conceptual and literal transparency creates an illusion of a horizon within the museum.

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TRAVEL REFLECTION

Versailles, Paris, France | Duality through reflection on water

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Berlin, Germany | Dissolution through reflection on a vertical building surface

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Bregenz, Austria | Duality through reflection on vertical glass surface

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The Louvre, Paris, France | Duality through reflection on water

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Model construct | Horizontal and vertical extens

sion of light through reflection on water

LIMINAL SPACES Thesis Inquiries

Liminal space is characterized by dissolution, transition, or blurring. Through the manipulation of space and material, the perception of depth and spatial definitions can begin to fluctuate in an ambiguous relationship, thus allowing an experience of disorientation and a questioning of material surroundings.

A liminal experience is offered through the use of reflective materials, which allow for a dynamic tension between the perception and definition of a space. For instance, the opposition between visual depth and physical flatness of a reflective building surface communicates a state of in-between or transition.

This thesis studies questions about the effects of reflective material on the human perception of spatial realities. Reflection through water, transparencies, and building surfaces is tested as one vehicle by which characterize a space of transition.

LAYERED SPACES

Model study | Layered transparent and translucent planes

Transition Transitional space is an intermediary area, or third space, that occupies two or more spaces, but does not hold a defined boundary. Layered transparencies can suggest a state of in-between or transitional threshold. For instance, when transparencies

repeat, several boundaries physically divide a space, yet the material’s transparency allows one to simultaneously perceive the space as one entity. In this threshold, one experiences a space that holds several overlapping spatial readings as material edges both maintain presence as spatial sectors and also dissolve to seemingly flatten space.

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Diagram of flattened three-dimensional space

Spatial translation of model study

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Altered Spatial Perceptions This first year model embodies qualities of liminality and ephemerality through the manipulation of transparent and translucent planes. Several planes of transparent acrylic are spaced evenly to create a cube. Within each transparent plane, a translucent square is inserted to generate the illusion of a space within a space. At several perspectival angles, the spatial form created by the translucent planes seemingly floats above the surface as the edges of the transparent planes seemingly disappear. The cross-section of the construct reveals that both spatial “forms� are actually one and the same.

Translucent plexiglass planes set with transparent plexiglass planes

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Construction sketches of spatial construct

Layered transparencies visually flatten and extend space

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STUDY OF LAYERED TRANSPARENCIES

Perception study through layers of translucent and transparent wall planes

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This study tests one’s perception of spatial depth through the interaction of directional light and layered transparencies. When several transparent or translucent wall planes mask a figure in space, one’s perception of the individual’s location can be altered and viewed as farther away than the unmasked figure.

Plan diagram of construct

Scale figures behind one translucent plane

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STUDY OF WATER REFLECTIONS

The apertures of light seemingly continue vertically and horizontally as they reflect onto the water

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The additional depth created by the light’s reflection of water creates a sense of unease as the surface appears to dissolve into an abyss

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At this specific viewpoint, the reflection of light on the water visually completes the cross-like pathway

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At this viewpoint, the visual completion of the cross-like pathway by light no longer exists

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At a specific viewpoint, the aperture is seemingly two-dimensional. The horizontal reflection of light on water reveals the true spatial, three-dimensionality

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At this viewpoint, the true three-dimensionality of the aperture is clearly evident

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STUDY OF BUILDING SURFACE REFLECTIONS

Non-physical depth presences itself through reflections on building surfaces

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Rockite model study of reflective building surfaces

Reflections on building surfaces allow one to experience liminality. This model study investigates how a physical, flat surface can be simultaneously perceived as visually extensive by manipulating its materially reflective spatial boundaries. Multiple dimensions can be perceived when strategically placed boundaries create ghostly reflections

of the scale figure upon the building surfaces.

The reflections introduce a sense of fleeting energies within a space occupied by one individual.

Also, the once distinguished pathway transforms into multiple pathways through its reflection, and the clarity of spatial realities diffuses.

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Diagram of bathhouse program weaving through winery spine

PROGRAMMATIC DUALITY A Bathhouse & Winery “The undefined remains indefinably enticing.� -Judith Hertzberg.

When two opposing forces are juxtaposed, a spatial dissonance occurs and we are exposed to the undefined. We venture into the unfamiliar to experience the limen, a sensory threshold, which allows us to reflect on ritual aspects of life.

A strictly structured winery program acts as a spine through which a bath house program threads through cultivated spaces of ambiguity, liminality, and dissonance. Visitors experience a breaking of boundaries between the programmatic events of a winery and a bathhouse.

A symbiotic relationship is formed between the two programs as shared conditions of temperatures, sounds, and aromas overlap.

The blurring of space is encouraged through manipulation of the different states and reflective qualities of liquid in both programs and the spatial intersection of programmatic events.

ROMAN BATHHOUSE PROGRAM | OPTIMAL LINEAR SEQUENCE

Apodyterium Apodyterium was a room inside the entrance where the bather stored their clothes. Composed of a large charging room with cubicles or shelves.

Notatio Open air swimming pool.

Palaestrae Palaestrae was a series of exercise rooms.

After exercise, bathers would have the dirt and oil scraped from their bodies with a curved metal implement called a strigil.

Laconica and Sudatoria Superheated dry and wet sweating rooms.

Caldarium Caldarium was a room with a hot plunge bath in the Roman baths. This was a very hot and steamy room heated by a hypocaust. This was the hottest room in the regular sequence of bathing rooms. In the caldarium, there would be a bath of hot water sunk into the floor .

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Tepidarium | Intermediate Bath Tepidarium was the warm bathroom of the Roman baths heated by a hypocaust or underfloor heating sytem. The specialty of a tepidarium is the pleasant feeling of constant radiant heat which directly affects the human body from the walls and floor. The tepidarium was decorated with the richest marbles and mosaics: it received its light through clerestory windows.

Masseur Rooms for massage and other health treatments.

Outdoor Garden After baths, patron could stroll in gardens, visit the library, watch performances of jugglers or acrobats, listen to literary recitals, or buy food from vendors.

Frigidarium | Plunge Bath Frigidarium is a large cold pool at the Roman baths. It would be entered after the caldarium and the tepidarium, which were used to open the pores of the skin.

The cold water would close the pores.

There would be a small pool of cold water or sometimes a large swimming pool. It was the heart of the baths complex.

Hypocaust Heating system fueled by wood burning furnaces. Furnace fires send warm air under the raised floor that stands on narrow pillars of solid stone, hollow cylinders, or polygonal or circular bricks.

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WINERY PROGRAM | OPTIMAL LINEAR SEQUENCE

Vineyard Harvest Pickers head into the vineyard to handpick properly ripened grapes which are loaded into a half-ton bin (Grapes can be machine harvested - requires quality control). Grapes are then transferred to the winery where rotten grapes are sorted out by hand.

De-stemming Sorted grapes go to a machine that removes stems. They might also be crushed a little. Stems are separated from the destemmer.

Fire-Toasted Barrels Barrels are treated with steam to open pores, then heated with air at temperatures between 380F and 475F. The process takes 65-85 minutes. Toasting mellows wood’s harsh tannins and mitigates raw oak flavors.

Foot Trodding Red grapes can be foot-trodden (fermentation naturally begins.) Skins and juices are mixed by hand. This is carried out many times a day to help with extraction and to stop bacteria from growing on the cap of grape skins.

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Fermentation Grapes are loaded onto a conveyor belt and pumped into fermentation vessels.

Red wines are fermented on their skins; white wines are pressed, separating juice from skins before fermentation. During fermentation, CO2 is released (Can leave surface exposed or vent). Cold temperatures keep yeast from making alcohol.

Punch Down | Pour Over Cap of skins are punched down with a robotic cap plunger (sometimes done by hand, using poles). Wine can also be pumped from the bottom of the tank back over the skins.

Pump Out Fermenting red wine is pumped out of the tank and pumped back in. This introduces oxygen to the wine and helps the yeasts in their growth.

Wine Press | Filtration Wine is pressed gently and evenly, with gradually increasing pressure. The “marc� is left over and can by used to make compost.

Barrels Once fermentation has finished, red wines are moved to barrel to complete their maturation. The Common size of barrels is 225-250 liters.

Bottling | Tasting Wine is pumped to bottling station to be bottled. The wine is then ready for tasting.

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PROGRAMMATIC INTERSECTIONS

Bathhouse (x-axis) and Winery (y-axis) programmatic intersections | Highlighted, plausible juxtapositions

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Winery barrels are revealed through the foggy mist of a steam room

Fermentation tanks suspend above a cool, reflective bath

The chart on the left crosses every programmatic event of both bathhouse and winery to speculate on plausible intersections. I highlighted various combinations that shared qualities of temperature, aroma, and general activity. For instance, the fermentation tank room of a winery and an ice bath both share the necessary condition of cold. When

spatially intersected, the programs merge in functionality yet maintain their separate identities. Another interesting combination includes the grape crush arena of a winery and a massage room of a bathhouse. In this case, foot-trodding of grapes essentially becomes a massage in an unconventional sense, and the identities of both programs diffuse into one.

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Hot bath and barrel-toasting

In ancient Roman bathhouses, a hypocaust was typically utilized to transfer heat to a caldarium, or hot bath. Warm air from furnace fires circulate through and around a series of stone pillars that supported a bath above. In the programmatic intersection chart, a bathhouse caldarium and a winery barrel-toasting room can share the necessary condition of “hot�. The atmospheric draw-

ing above demonstrates a scenario in which a barrel toasting room resembles a hypocaust as several pillars spatially divide sections of barrels. These pillars extend through the upper level into a hot bath. As barrels are toasted below, heat and aromas of smoked oak rise and contribute to a unique bathing experience.

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Shallow bath transitions into grape crush arena

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Fermentation tanks suspend over, and reflect endlessly, into calm, cool waters | Both programs share the condition of cold

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Diagram of bathhouse program weaving through the winery spine

Structure and Circulation I propose a space in which both programs share ambiguous moments of convergence as the architecture experientially transitions from a bathhouse to a winery. First, upon entrance, a visitor inhabits a bathhouse. As he continues to circulate to varying baths, components of a winery are ambiguously and gradually revealed. For instance, steel fermentation tanks puncture through a cold bath space, but their identity as functional

parts of a winery is obscured. A visitor then transitions from being consumed by water to consuming wine in the wine-tasting cylinder. As a winery occupant ascends through the cylinder, strategically placed apertures unveil glimpses into how the winery and bathhouse converge and support each other functionally and atmospherically. Finally, upon departing, wine consumes the visitor as he ambulates through the bath-like grape crush.

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STRUCTURAL STUDIES

Spatial Dissonance through Structure A bathhouse and winery have functional needs that require a spatial separation. To maintain distinct identities that intersect occasionally, each program is structurally supported by differing means. A series of model studies demonstrate varying structural possibilities of how both programs can be individually supported.

Structural study | Concrete bathhouse volumes interject into a lightly framed winery

Structural study | Bathhouse and winery alternate between floors

When opposing programs are juxtaposed, a spatial dissonance occurs that is reflected through the structure. Heavy, concrete bathhouse volumes, suspended from a large truss by thin tension cables, seemingly hover vertically into the light, columnar winery space. Sources of stability are concealed to create a sense of dissonance and contribute to a sensory threshold between winery and bathhouse.

Structural study | Concrete bathhouse volumes suspend vertically into lightly framed winery floors

Structural study | Alternate bathhouse and winery floors

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Bathhouse circulation floors alternate with winery floors and connect vertically suspended bathhouse volumes

Spatial dissonance | Heavy concrete bathhouse volumes suspend into winery floors

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Column-like bathhouse volumes suspend from a large truss system into a gravity winery. Winery floors delicately touch the heavy, concre

ete bathhouse volumes for stabilization. Bathhouse visitors circulate between column-like volumes by service floors that alternate between winery floors.

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Diagrammatic section of bathhouse visitor path | Double, conjoined circuit

Steel anchors and support plate

Bathhouse volumes, suspended by steel tension cables, run through the concrete and attach to a steel plate under the volume. The volumes seemingly float within the winery levels as a one-foot gap surrounds the concrete protrusions. Hidden, steel supports extend out from beneath the winery floors to minimally anchor the baths.

Frosted glass staircase volumes, for bathhouse visitor circulation, pun

ncture through the winery floors allowing a ghosted view of activity beyond. Winery workers circulate separately from bathhouse visitors by an elevator.

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First floor | Barrel room Wine tasting cylinder

Second floor | Public plaza

Third floor | Bathhouse visitor circulation Cold bath

Fourth floor | Barrel-toasting

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Fifth floor | Bathhouse visitor circulation Hot and outdoor bath Tepid bath

Sixth floor | Fermentation room

Seventh floor | Bathhouse visitor circulation Tepid bath and aroma corridors

Eighth floor | Grape crush plaza

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SPATIAL INTERSECTIONS

Fermentation Tank and Cold Bath As visitors enter a cold bath, suspended steel tanks can be seen from three stories above.

The tanks are held within the sixth floor of a refrigerated room.

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Level 6 | Fermentation tank floor

Level 3 | Bathhouse visitor circulation floor | Cold bath

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Barrel Room and Plaza Intersection A public plaza offers fluidity between city, the underground and above ground. Frosted glass light-wells extend into the plaza from the underground barrel room with reflective pools to offer glimpses into activities below grade. Visitors enter the structure through an elevator on the plaza.

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Level 2 | Plaza | Entrance

Level 1 | Bathhouse visitor circulation floor | Cold bath

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VISITOR AND WORKER EXPERIENCE

Barrel-toasting room | Concrete bathhouse volumes and frosted glass stairwells enter the barrel-toasting area. Smoked oak aromas and heat permeate small openings in a concrete bathing volume. As visitors occupy the stairwell, ghosted views of worker’s activity can be seen beyond.

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Bathhouse circulation corridor | Water reflection on smooth concrete from a bathing pool beyond lures visitors to transition into a new space

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Reflections This thesis was an investigation of spatial ambiguity and liminality through the juxtaposition of a winery and bathhouse. The ambiguity that stems from a dance between opposing programs can allow one to reflect on specific ritual aspects of each program, such as drinking wine and bathing. Experiencing an in-between state, the limen, can heighten one’s understanding of their spatial environment.

Grape Crush | Consumed by wine

Frigidarium | Consumed by water

Eighth floor grape crush arena | As visitors

s ambulate through the grape crush and peer into the bathhouse volumes they previously occupied, the truss and column structural systems are revealed.

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PROCESS

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