RICHARD DOUZJIAN
shiogumo Selected Works | 2018
IMMATERIAL
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM & PARK Paused Commission Kharayeb - 2015-2017
Discovered in 1946, the archaeological site dating back to the Late Iron Age, encompasses ruins of a small temple, that’s been dated to the Persian and Hellenistic Ages. The more important findings are the thousands of small votive terracotta figurines mass produced on site (findings started in 1969, stopped around 1975, then reprised in 2009). Following on the aspirations of the directors, with emphasis on enhancing the villagers’ use of the space and preserving the natural & agricultural environments, shiogumo deconstructed the conventional museum program and organized its components in the most accessible and environmentally friendly way. Each major programmatic component becomes a pavilion on its own gently placed either side of the main entrance central axis. The site is experienced exclusively on foot. The KAM’s 4 pavilions are: The Exhibitions Pavilion, The Administration & Amenities Pavilion, The Café and The Main Gate Pavilion. 69 terracotta figurines of higher archaeological, cultural and artisanal value, are individually and permanently exhibited in The Exhibitions Pavilion in Corten steel & glass solar tubes. This is called The Forest of Light. By singling out high-value figurines, their idiosyncrasies and narratives become more elevated. To emphasize the KAM’s integration within its context, The Exhibitions Pavilion does not have any physical boundaries with the natural environment. The Pavilion is completely open and susceptible to natural environmental conditions except for direct precipitation and solar exposure. A key reason this informative and educational pavilion is conceived so openly is to make it as inviting as possible to local villagers who may be intimidated by a cultural project. The site therefore continues to function as a public park open for all (KAM is free of charge to the residents of Kharayeb). Furthermore, The Cloud on Stilts offers them a new perspective of the KAM and The Temple Ruins as well as their village and the surrounding area.
Total Built Area: 1100m2 Total Public Park Area: 32000m2
ECS-P1
EMERGENCY PLASTIC CRATES SHELTER Prototype Byblos - 2014
Project published in: ▹MOBITECTURE: ARCHITECTURE ON THE MOVE, p.104-105, Phaidon, March 2017. ▹THE NEW NOMADS: TEMPORARY SPACES AND A LIFE ON THE MOVE, p.115, Gestalten Publishers, March 2015. ▹Designboom.com & many other online magazines The Emergency plastic Crates Shelter prototype 1 (ECS-p1), developed and designed with third year architecture students at the Lebanese American University as a 1:1 scale prototype on site at the university’s Byblos campus. As part of my academic activities I had requested for the temporary structures to be developed from common, everyday objects that are easily accessible to people all-over the world, as many refugees are forced to incorporate such materials into creating their own living environments. The ECS-p1 project uses just two components for construction materials: plastic crates — indispensable to the agriculture sector — and regular zip ties. The crates are reusable if undamaged, otherwise they are completely recyclable along with the ties that hold it together. Other than the 3 vertical support columns per wall and at the window sills, every single plastic crate functions as a storage unit. this dual purpose extends to the window shutters, which can be integrated as either seats or table legs when not blocking the openings. The primary objective of the ECS-p1 was to study the spatial and structural properties of the plastic crates as construction materials. In hot and dry climates it is an excellent substitute to the conventional tent: it procures natural lighting, ventilation and cooling, all the while being structurally more resistant and offering seamless storage spaces. The development of appropriate thermal insulation, heating, waterproofing and water collection systems are the objectives of the second prototype, the ECS-p2, currently under study. Built area: 14.4m2 - Liveable area: 9m2 Assembly time: 5 to 7 hours (workforce of 10 people) Number of used crates: 416
GREEN GIANT
LA SAGESSE ACHRAFIEH COLLEGE SPORTS COURT Aborted Commission Beirut - 2012
This project consists of multi-phase multidisciplinary approaches to the widespread, geographically indiscriminate phenomenon of Stillborn Structures (SbS) in Lebanon. As thousands of unfinished and abandoned buildings lie in decay, shiogumo is mapping them out one by one, categorising them and identifying their raisons d’être and potentialities. The results of shiogumo|Richard Douzjian’s actions on the SbS will be communicated through multiple formats and media, made public on different phases. The actions range from photo documentaries to lobbying to change private laws and regulations, passing through temporary site-specific interventions. Approximate Total Surface Area: 2500m2
RESURRECTING STILLBORNS
RESEARCH, DOCUMENTATION AND STUDIES Lebanon - 2012-Ongoing
This project consists of multi-phase multidisciplinary approaches to the widespread, geographically indiscriminate phenomenon of Stillborn Structures (SbS) in Lebanon. As thousands of unfinished and abandoned buildings lie in decay, shiogumo is mapping them out one by one, categorising them and identifying their raisons d’être and potentialities. The results of shiogumo|Richard Douzjian’s actions on the SbS will be communicated through multiple formats and media, made public on different phases. The actions range from photo documentaries to lobbying to change private laws and regulations, passing through temporary site-specific interventions.
SPEARS IN THE I
MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATION ART Executed Beirut - 2012
This installation art project was the conclusion and application of notions given in a 2 week intensive interdisciplinary vertical workshop in March 2012 at Université Saint Esprit de Kaslik (USEK). The first half of the workshop consisted of lectures and mini spatial experiments; whereas the second half consisted of elaborating temporary spatial interventions on the infamous culture hub Zico House, in Beirut. The interventions were site-specifc and film-specific as they were based on properties extracted through the analysis of Zico House, and the film Mon Oncle d’Amérique (Alain Resnais, 1980). The lectures revolved around topics such as: - (re)Introduction to Contemporary Arts (focus on video, film and interactive arts) - Semiotics and Perception of the Built Environment - Urban Memories and Narratives - The Ephemeral - Interactive Technologies in the Built Environment - Experience Design - Exhibition Design A better and more developed explanation in the form of a video documentation shot for Future TV’s LAMASAT culture program can be found at: https://vimeo.com/41833539 ROLE: Organiser, Lecturer, and Co-Producer In collabration with interdisciplinary artist Miha Vipotnik and the students of USEK, Lebanon.
FASHION FLOAT TOKYO FASHION MUSEUM International Competition Entry Tokyo - 2009
The competition brief specified a 100m high tower-museum on a tiny plot of land in Omotesando, Tokyo’s fashion district. Our team’s entry was an experiment trying to redefine some basic concepts of what constitutes a skyscraper and their influences on museology. One of our most important decisions was to conceive a tower with such a minimal impact in general, and on the street-level in particular, that it could pass unnoticed; especially if the main volume visually reflected its environment without emitting any lights at night. Raising all the main functions to the highest permitted limit, we started building our museum from the top down. Therefore, the main access of the exhibition spaces was not on the street-level anymore, but at an altitude of 95m, on the Virtual Ground Floor (accessed via an express elevator after stopping at the Intermediate Access Point: Ticketing & Lockers). While inside the express elevator as well as the museum itself, the visitors have no visual clues to the altitudes they are at: they first become aware of their elevation only upon their exit from the elevator at the Virtual Ground Floor/Japanese Garden (+95m). Following the natural pull of gravity, the visitors descend through the blinded airtight museum and its floating exhibitions, and find themselves in the open again at the first balcony (+40m) followed by the open runways (+30m). Arriving at the actual street level, visitors of the Tokyo Fashion Museum will have experienced a ride down the proverbial rabbit hole.
Total Built Area: 4000m2
GHOSTS OF KYOTO DOCUMENTING A UNIQUE URBAN PHENOMENON Photo Documentation Kyoto - 2008-2010 During the early days of my stay in Kyoto, I had noticed odd traces on the facades of innumerable contemporary buildings. These traces came in many different forms and materials: house silhouettes, pieces of roofs detached from their original structure, etc. After further investigation into the matter, these traces turned out to be remnants of torn down traditional Kyoto townhouses, or Machiya, in Japanese. During the time of the construction of the contemporary buildings baring the traces of the Machiya, the regulations allowed their total adherence to their neighboring structures. Consequently, as the adhered Machiya was in turn torn down, it left behind these particular and peculiar traces, that I have coined “Ghosts”. The strength and type of these Ghosts depended on the level of adjacency between the “dead” Machiya and the contemporary building. In 2 years of “Ghost Hunting” I have collected around 100 samples categorizing them into 6 different types based on the typologies of their appearance and location. This work wasn’t concluded due to my more pressing Doctoral research. Accordingly, I am currently in search of appropriate, creative ways to exploit this extensively collected data. The following page exhibits some samples of “Ghosts of Kyoto”. A personal video presentation on the “Ghosts of Kyoto”, given at a PechaKucha Night in Kobe, can be found at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzKSPku7S1Q
GLOW IN THE MIST CHENGDU GRAND OPERA & PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL Winning Competition Entry Chengdu - 2006 Embracing the misty conditions of Chengdu, China, our team developed the Opera and Music Halls as crimson-laquered treasure boxes lost in the fog. All structures surrounding the latter two are imagined as concretization of mist, in the form of translucent and/or layered architectonic elements that prepare visitors for the “treasues” within. ROLE: Design Development With AREP Group - Paris, France
CITY STRIP
URBAN PLANNING & CONSTRUCTION EXHIBITION HALL Winning Competition Entry Tianjin - 2007 ROLE: Design Development With AREP Group - Paris, France
BOX 3883
STUDIO UNITS FOR ARTISTS Competition Entry Beijing - 2007
The project works on two different scales that of the city and of the architectural unit itself. When the unit is stripped from its skin it reveals the clear identity of the artist that dwells in it. The proposal was designed having a minimal architectural character to provide a optimization of the dwelling artist’s identity. That is why the façade is chosen to be a transparent glass plate at the ground level, as means to provide total openness for the gallery; while on the other hand, the remaining floors are covered by a translucent skin animated by pivoting louvers revealing a blurred image of the artist’s private life. When the different facades are assembled sequentially, although having the same character which is defined by the translucent skin, the identities of the different artists animate the facades with the diversity of life, art, motion, shadows, and animation of light.
BAR OF JUSTICE
PARIS CENTRAL JUSTICE HALL & URBANIZATION ZONE (ZAC) Competition Entry Paris - 2006 In the aim of creating a strong identity for the High Court, we had decided to conceive a volume that is imposing by itself, and yet discreet on the urban level. This image was inspired by our vision of Law and Order, that shouldn’t be violently imposed on citizens, but when needed, should show force and institute respect. Moreover on the given site, there already existed the early 20th century concrete-built Freyssinet Hall that the brief called for conseravtion. This conservation, implied that functionally we didn’t need to add much height to the additional building, therefore reinforcing the urban level discretion, and using the Freyssinet Hall and the Justice Bar as complementary elements on all levels: functional, aesthetic and volumetric. This complementarity responded perfectly to the highly complex internal network and functional connectivity of the given program.
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
STUDY FOR FAST PRODUCED TEMPORARY LIVING UNITS Study - 2005 Due to their light mass/size ratio, and easy assembling system, these temporary Units can be assembled and reassembled at refugee camps and disaster zones, and/or even rented out at camping sites and resorts. Each Unit, depending on its size, is composed of a number of modular Particles made entiWWrely out of recycled/recyclable compressed polystyrene foam covered by a protective layer of laminated polyester resin.
DISAPPEARING ACT SYDNEY CBD BUS SHELTER Competition Entry Sydney - 2005 The shelters were imagined and conceived based on the organic geometry of vines. Correspondingly, an integral choice to the conception was the decision to let the structures disappear under actual vines. The covered vine-structures thus become refreshing natural elements in the urban landscape, constantly changing and evolving with the seasons.
THE HIVE
AL MAWARED BANK HQ Competition Entry Beirut - 2003
How to distinguish an HQ in a district full of your competitors’ HQs and strict building regulations? By outsmarting the regulations, use them to one’s advantage and create a site-specific unique building that is in extreme contrast with your competitors. The Hive is a sculpted product of the literal interpretations of Beirut’s BCD regulations: 1- At least 60% of volume must be covered in minerals // More than 60% of the Hive is covered in photovoltaic shading blades (silicates are minerals by definition) , thus resulting in the unique and contrasting introverted black volume with green energy production. The blades also offer better natural lighting control and protection from the +300 days of Beiruti sun. 2- Exploitation is 100% // The Hive sticks to the limits of the site embracing its planar form and changing with its morphology. 3- Height of building must be 24m from street-level // The Hive follows and adapts itself to the level differences between the main and back streets. 4- Need for a 3m sidewalk/gallery on the main street facade // A 3m gallery defined by the photovoltaic blades’ projection surrounds the perimeter of the Hive. By filtering the direct sunlight from the facades, natural light is rechanneled from the rooftop through light wells. Each well intersecting a floor slab defines a specific and unique workstation: each bank (sub)department thus becomes identified by its own light well. The employees are like moths attracted to the burning flame. Total Built Area: 3000m2
CONTACT
richard@shiogumo.com 0096176026099 - Beirut, Lb 00447902935406 - Birmingham, UK www.shiogumo.com