URBAN ENTANGLEMENT_POPESCU.SILVIU_DISSERTATION

Dissertation| UAUIM | Bucharest 10.04.2020

A SYNTHETIC COMPOSITION OF NON-FORMAL ELEMENTES SELECTED FROM AN X-RAY OF CRITIQUE BUCHAREST FOR CREATING PROUD IDENTITY

Diploma| UAUIM | Bucharest 14.04.2020

A GLOBAL CITY ON DOROBANTI STR. IN BUCHAREST

POPESCU SILVIU ALIN Guide: Dorin Stefan

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“A practice without a theoretical support is not enough�

Alberto Perez Gomez

*STATEMENT: This is a theoretical approach for an individual architectural process

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STRUCTURE OF CONTENT

• DISSERTATION PHAZE: I.

INTENTION

1. INSTRUMENT (existent) (a) DEFINITION (b) MAIN CONCEPT (c) OTHER CONCEPTS

2. RESULT (proposal) (a) FIRST CHARACTERISTIC (b) SECOND CHARACTERISTIC (c) THIRD CHARACTERITIC

• FUNDAMENTAL STUDY PHAZE: II.

LOCATION

• PRE-DIPLOMA PHAZE: III.

PROGRAM

• DIPLOMA PHAZE: IV.

DESIGN

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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

STRUCTURE OF CONTENT ...................................................................................................................... 2 STRUCTURE OF IDEAS ........................................................................................................................... 4 ARGUMENT .......................................................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 6 BODY OF WORKS

I. INTENTION:

............................................................................................................. 7

1.1 LIGHT- AND THE MEANING OF IT ....................................................................................................................... 8 1.1.2 Definition ................................................................................................................................................. 9 1.1.3. Tropism ................................................................................................................................................. 10 1.1.4 Plato’s Cave ........................................................................................................................................... 11 1.2 PROOF OF MULTIPLE REALITIES ........................................................................................................................ 13 1.2.2 Double slit experiment ........................................................................................................................... 14 1.2.3 Quantum Entanglement .......................................................................................................................... 15 1.2.4 Rendered Consciousness ........................................................................................................................ 16

II. LOCATION:

................................................................................................................... 17

2.1 REALITY- AND THE MEANING OF IT ................................................................................................................... 18 2.1.2 Definition ............................................................................................................................................... 19 2.1.3 Perception& Common Reality of space................................................................................................. 20 2.1.4 How non formal elements can create striking reality ............................................................................. 23 2.2 A CRITIQUE OF BUCHAREST ............................................................................................................................. 24 2.2.2 Creating proud identity .......................................................................................................................... 25 2.2.3 Urban structure x-ray............................................................................................................................. 27 2.2.4 The spirit of the place ............................................................................................................................. 29

III. PROGRAM:

........................................................................................................................... 31

3.1 PUBLIC- AND THE MEANING OF IT .................................................................................................................... 32 3.1.2 Definition ............................................................................................................................................... 33 3.1.3 Most public possible by activities. .......................................................................................................... 34 3.1.4 Other public concepts............................................................................................................................. 35 3.2 GLOBAL SCENARIO .......................................................................................................................................... 36 3.1.2 Tourism Attractor ................................................................................................................................... 37 3.1.3 Other global characteristics................................................................................................................... 38 3.1.4 Street extension ...................................................................................................................................... 40

VI. DESIGN:

............................................................................................................................... 41

4.1 TECHNOLOGY-AND THE MEANING OF IT ........................................................................................................... 42 4.1.2 Definition .............................................................................................................................................. 43 4.1.3 Theoretical Case studies ........................................................................................................................ 45 4.1.4 Built Case studies ................................................................................................................................... 48 4.2 DIPLOMA PROJECT ........................................................................................................................................... 50 4.1.2 Composition ........................................................................................................................................... 51 4.1.3 Function ................................................................................................................................................. 51 4.1.4 Expression ............................................................................................................................................. 52 CONCLUSIONS CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 53 BIBLIOGRAPHY& WEBOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 54 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 56 ADDENDA ........................................................................................................................................... 58

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STRUCTURE OF IDEAS INTRODUCTION: Answering to the main question of the project, by solving a need in the local society related to global scale and setting up the premises of the project and the main hypothesis for later to be proved.

BODY OF WORKS: Organizing the project into four distinguished main chapter, as a mandatory sequence for any project ever to be design (1.1/2.1/etc. represents the instrument intro answering the meaning of the title of the chapters-1.2/2.2/etc.): 1. The intention chapter presents a starting point with thoughts and concepts laying on the basis for the understanding of the project, where the meaning of light manages to create confusion to the existence of reality as we know

it.

2. The location chapter, as an individual study for the cause of the object, which is later to be discovered, a rather new and critique perspective over the city of Bucharest, where non-formal elements will be selected in order to create a new reality for a proud identity.

3. The program chapter shows a detailed insight about the meaning of public space and its relations with the environment, the main user and most attractive activities, will determinate a global city with layers to be

discovered.

4. The design chapter speaks about the approach upon the space and the generated context, about technology as the new instrument for creation and the importance of durability and sustainability. Also, a couple of study cases will be analyzed.

CONCLUSION: A reflection upon the presented chapters will be able to offer an answer to the question asked in the beginning of the study and using this answer as an instrument or mechanism for conceiving the diploma project.

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ARGUMENT The drive of the project lays into the underrated perception and the undiscovered potential of Bucharest, but also the lack and the use of the public space in a productive and liberal way.

The purpose of the project is to create a proud identity after the motto-theme:� local is modern�. This way after a critique x-ray of the city as an organism, several elements

were selected for creating striking reality, a context within similar context.

In order to achieve the right of creating own reality, one first must prove the possibility of multiple realities, in a meta-physical way by using quantum physics, where light, one of the most important elements in architecture stands as the bases of a theory capable of demonstrating why perception is the perspective upon the existence reality, and how it can actually be so much complex than this.

In need of a utopian fantasy where mostly the starting point was well-known and

often used before, I choose to relate to a story in which reality might be just a sum of rendered consciousnesses and by extracting all the subjects, it becomes a desire for creation.

Also, the study is a continuation after a personal project inside the design studio of UAUIM, where public space was analyzed in detail for a good understanding on how intensity can generate urban success.

Figure 1: edited image of Hammershoi painting for personal project: Public space.

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INTRODUCTION Key words: multiple reality, light, quantum entanglement, rendered consciousness, perception, local is modern, proud identity, public space, youth, technology. (‌) the urban entanglement terminology appears by creating a digital type of illustration in which there is no space and time and layers have no order. Thus, this

type of reality must be anchored to a physical tri-dimensional world by a selection of unique, local elements, after x-raying the identity of criticism in the city. The nonformal elements pop out and while levitating above ground they are searching for a proper location.

Therefore, I’m imagining a Bucharest not rendered by any consciousness, an unobserved structure generating a multitude of patterns founded on the database from the genesis of the city. An epicenter is determined by an intersection of main axes.

Therefore, all elements are powerful enough to creating reality by striking intervention. This must be done behind the existing skin of the solid structure of the city by screening the existing buildings and finding refugee behind them and creating a trustworthy invitation towards an assumed identity in order to find acceptance with the rest of the environment. The user is also the partaker to creating reality by transitioning from private space to the use of public.

Public space in Bucharest seems to be part of the most valuable constructions of its identity by the way users seemed to have conquered it in the lack of the classical

square or the piazza. So, the street somehow became an extension of the courtyard, and street like spaces kept appearing in all sorts of scenarios. Young people, students, artists and tourists are using it in various activities from graffiti to skateboarding, being in need of a shelter-like type of space in closed arms of the city.

Youth center, as an incubator space for studying, working, selling, relaxing and performing. A fun palace on top of the city, right in the center of it, designed from local type elements in order to offer modernity in the sense of progress.

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I. INTENTION: URBAN ENTANGLEMENT

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I.

INTENTION

1.1 Light-and the meaning of it

Figure 2

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I.

INTENTION

1.1 Light-and the meaning of it

1.1.2 DEFINITION (PHYSICALLY) Origin: Old English lēoht, līht (noun and adjective), līhtan (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch licht and German Licht, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek leukos ‘white’ and Latin lux ‘light’.

Noun: “The natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible.

Visible light is electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength falls within the range to which the human retina responds, i.e., between about 390 nm (violet light) and 740 nm (red). White light consists of a roughly equal mixture of all visible wavelengths, which can be separated to yield the colors of the spectrum, as was first demonstrated conclusively by Newton. In the 20th century it has become apparent that light consists of energy quanta called photons that behave partly like waves and partly like particles.

The velocity of light in a vacuum is 299,792 km per second” ‘the light of the sun’1 Natural light: Humans have created during the course of their evolutionary history, a natural internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycles, repeating roughly every twentyfour hours, called the circadian rhythm, based on the presence and absence of natural light, given by sun and the movement of earth around him. Sunlight is also the main source for vitamin D, by the absorption of UV B radiation by the skin, produced on this earth for more than 500 million years.

Light might be one of the most important and key-to survival elements because of consequences effects created by it. Because of the addiction between sight and light, due to visibility, environments are one of the most powerful sources of emotions through the sense of seeing. Moreover, the existence of darkness is determined by the absence of light itself, demonstrating in fact that it is actually the inexistence of darkness.

X-rays are a form of high energy radiation part of the electromagnetic spectrum, with wavelengths shorter than the visible light.

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https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/light -9-

I.

INTENTION

1.1 Light-and the meaning of it

1.1.3 TROPISM (SCIENTIFICALLY) A definition given by the dictionary is that tropism is “The turning of all or part of an organism in a particular direction in response to an external stimulus.”2

Such as light

in most of the cases. It can be a very powerful example of how, besides humans, more of the beings from the natural environment are somehow connected with light. In a very close relation, tropism can become a powerful

source

of

complexity

and

dynamism in architecture. This type of targeting and orienting based od different types of parameters can represent a basic reason of behavior inspired from the natural

Figure 3: tropism at plants.

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world.

Metapolis speaks about the term as: ‘tropism(active)’. Today it is a question of positioning the propositional potential of mobility and interchange and relating it to a

new understanding of the idea of place-an articulated place-with new projectual-and conceptual-tools. Recovering a certain optimistic-ambitious-epic of the global implied profound changes of scale and structure which are features of the new metropolitan shapes; favoring a positive and, at the same time, critical action, attentive to the conflicts, tensions and deficits generated by the phenomenon in question. It is a question of re-thinking the notion of tropism, as an objective factor, rather than a puzzling platitude. Promoting, in this context – as anticipated – the idea of place not as a fragment that evokes a cohesive whole, but rather as a specific, autonomous event, which is

linked to a strategic and heterogenous spectrum – a patchwork – of strata, situations and potential loveliness. Places are concatenated or braided, based upon this progressive capacity for displacement that enables us, in a same lapse of time, not only to arrive ever further, but also to arrive at an increasing number of places. Urban life seems marked by a double tropism (metropolitan on the one hand, domestic on the other) that tends to strip of their old functions and values some of the spaces between the “metropolity” collective places and the home private. 3

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https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/tropism

Susanna Cros (coord), The metapolis dictionary of advanced architecture, p.641 - 10 -

I.

INTENTION

1.1 Light-and the meaning of it

1.1.4 PLATO’S CAVE (PHILOSOPHICALLY) Going forward with light as a powerful concept generating sequences of life, another consequence appears: shadow.

As a reflection of the realities in front of our eyes, the man in Plato’s cave realizes further on the meaning of the sun. He becomes friends with it. Much before that, light was only a curiosity.4 A curiosity strong enough to pull him out from an only reality,

just to discover plenty more. Imagining how the relation between the object itself and its shadow can invert, as the allegory presents, it is the proof of how different the perception upon reality can be and how light might influence this factor.

In 1908 a delegation of American businessman visits Antonio Gaudi om Barcelona and asks him to design a Grand Hotel in Manhattan. No site is known for the project; the businessman may merely want an initial sketch, to raise money on and match later with a location. It is unlikely that Gaudi is aware of the quantum leaps and breakthroughs Manhattanism has produced; the businessman themselves must have recognized the affinity between Gaudi’s hysteria and Manhattan’s frenzy. But in this European isolation, Gaudi is like the man is Plato’s cave; from the shadows of the businessmen’s descriptions and requirements he is forced to reconstruct a reality outside the cave, that of an ideal Manhattan.5 There’s nothing else powerful enough to extract consciousness from an environment where it co-existed since it remembers, but light. Either from its natural power of attraction, physical need, or curiosity through its divine relation. We corelate the source

of light with something coming from above, so we tend to raise our heads up in order to perceive it. It is scientifically proven that one cannot cry while looking upwards, therefore the relation between light and divine. Still, looking is strictly related to sight and the sense of seeing. In western culture, sight has historically been regarded as the noblest of the senses and thinking itself though of in terms of seeing. Already in classical Greek though, certainty was based on vision and visibility. ‘The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears,’ wrote Heraclitus in one of his fragments.6 Plato regarded 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RWOpQXTltA&list=PL6upg1JNDpCmP8pqS9Lra hqZ3wLLu0th1&index=3&t=0s 5 Rem Koolhas, Delirious New York, p.105-Cave.

6 Heraclitus, Modernity and the Hegemony of vision, ed David Michael Levin, p1.

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I.

INTENTION

1.1 Light-and the meaning of it

vision as humanity’s greatest gift7, and he insisted that ethical universals must be accessible to ‘minds eye’8. Aristotle, likewise, considered sight as the most noble of the senses ‘because it approximates the intellect most closely by virtue of the relative immateriality of its knowing’9. Juhani Pallasma speaks in the Eyes of the Skin, by explaining the title in her introduction on how: ‘ I wished to express the significance of the tactile sense for our experience and understanding of the world, but I also intended to create a conceptual short circuit between the dominant sense of vision and the suppressed sense modality of touch. Since writing the original text I have learned that our skin is actually capable of distinguishing a number of colors; we do indeed see by our skin’10.

Figure 4 Ethics and argument in Plato’s Republic. Summer 1994. Steven S. tiger & Tonya Geckle

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Plato, Timaeus, 47b, as quoted by Martin Jay in The Denigration of Vision in TwentiethCentury French thought, p.27 8 Georgia Warnke, 'Ocularcentrism and Social Criticism' in Levin, p 287 9 Thomas R Flynn, 'Foucault and the Eclipse of Vision', in Levin (1993), p 274.

10 Juhani Pallasma, The eyes of the skin, p.10

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I.

INTENTION

1.2 Proof of multiple realities

Figure 5

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I.

INTENTION

1.2 Proof of multiple realities

1.2.2 DOUBLE SLIT EXPERIMENT Wave-light duality is a long discussion in quantum mechanics for both light and matter. In 1801, when light was known to behave like a ray, having a linear direction from one point to another, Thomas Young performed an experiment called the Double Slit Experiment, where light was passed through a plane with two slits in it, striking a screen beyond. The diffraction and interference patterns that resulted clearly supported the wave model of light. With the brighter bands representing constructive interference and the darker bands representing destructive interference with the width of the bands being a function of the frequency of the light. Later in the century, Maxwell showed that light is a wave of isolating electric and magnetic fields, so it seemed that case is closed on the declaration of light as waves, meaning that light as a wave function travels from one point to another as a wave. 11 In 1905 Einstein solved the problem of the photo electric effect by assigning particle nature to light, thus wave-particle duality was born. So, now, light has both, particle

and wave functions. This was shown to be true in an experiment just like Young’s more than 100 years prior. From this it was shown that a beam of electrons exhibits diffraction and interference patterns, just like light does. This demonstrates the wavelike properties of electrons and by extension matter in general. Later, low intensity experiments showed that even an individual electron went passed the slits will interfere with itself.12 More exactly, since light is composed from particles called photons, the experiment was made by triggering one photon at a time, through the same double slits. The result was clearly miraculous because the same interference pattern emerged on the projected wall. Fascinating is how the particles seemed to be related to one another and they manage to communicate in a manner, in order to anticipate the position of the previous one in order to create the same pattern as continuous light. The remaining question is which slit did each photon went through. Did it go through one or another or through bot

11 12

Ananthaswamy Anil, Through two doors at once https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uva6gBEpfDY - 14 -

I.

INTENTION

1.2 Proof of multiple realities

1.2.3 QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT Starting with the Copenhagen interpretation, which is an expression of the meaning of quantum mechanics that was largely devised in the years 1925 to 1927 by Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. It remains one of the most commonly though interpretations of the quantum world. According to the Copenhagen interpretation, physical systems generally do not have properties prior to being measured, and quantum mechanics can only predict the probabilities that measurements will produce certain results. The act of measurement affects the system, causing the set of probabilities to reduce one of the possible values immediately after the measurement.

This feature is known as a wavefunction collapse. Its almost like the universe is allowing all possibilities to exist simultaneously but holds of choosing which happens until the last instance. Weirder, those different possible paths, different possible realities, interact with each other. That interaction increases the chance that some paths become real and decreases the chance of other. 13 The theory of quantum mechanics produces stunningly accurate predictions of reality and it’s completely consistent with the Copenhagen interpretation, but this is not the only interpretation that works. There are interpretations that give the wave function a physical reality. It is known that light is a wave in the electromagnetic field and quantum field theory tells us that all fundamental particles are waves in their own fields.14 More exactly, the Copenhagen interpretation was trying to demonstrate how can the double slit experiment happen the way it does. How can every particle triggered one at a time, create the interference pattern of a wave function? So, what they did was to create a measuring device and place it next to each slit so every time a photon is passing through the detector will signal the presence. The result was a complete failure because in the time of measuring, the pattern fails to appear. E new pattern emerged, one looking very similar to what usually would have made sense. A pattern mirroring the slits was reflected on the wall.

13 14

Herbert Nick, Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-MNSLsjjdo&t=606s - 15 -

I.

INTENTION

1.2 Proof of multiple realities

1.2.4 RENDERED CONSCIOUSNESS There was no rational explanation for the conclusion of the experiment, besides that the universe was aware of the fact that something was trying to measure it, so it chose to show a different reality.

Quantum mechanics shows us that particles like photons or electrons and even atoms are in superposition meaning that they can exist in different states and even multiple

places at the same time. They are thought to be nothing more than waves of probabilities until the moment that they are measured. This measurement collapses the probability wave of the particle such that it then becomes a distinct particle with distinct properties. One interpretation of this phenomenon is that the measurement being made requires a measure or a conscious observer. If this is correct, that it implies that consciousness has to be an integral part of creating the world that we observe. Could this consciousness then be required for creating reality? Does this mean there would be no reality without consciousness and that the universe with not

exist unless there was someone to observe it.15 The answer to this profound question is coming when analyzing what measurement represents after all. Because the Copenhagen interpretation says that the particle becomes distinct when it is measured. Does measurement take place at the instrument that measures it? Does it take place when the instruments measurement is recorded in its digital memory? Does it take place when a human eye sees the result? Does it take place when the brain interprets the result, or does it happen somewhere in between?

Does measurement necessarily require consciousness?16

Figure 7 the pattern in the moment of observation

Figure 6 the interference pattern

15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h75DGO3GrF4&list=PL6upg1JNDpCmP8pqS9Lra hqZ3wLLu0th1&index=4&t=10s 16

Herbert Nick, Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics

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II.

LOCATION: LOCAL IS MODERN

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II.

LOCATION

2.1 Reality- and the meaning of it

Figure 8 - 18 -

II.

LOCATION

2.1 Reality-and the meaning of it

2.1.2 DEFINITION A conclusion to this theory, as we found out so far, is that reality might be an outcome of consciousness after it is measured and in order to perceive it, the measurement process occurs through human senses. Thus, the visual reality it is a series of rendered images by a multitude of subjects stocked in a collective memory. We found out that is majorly influenced by different factors, such as human perception.

A sum of official definitions will be: “Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence.17 In physical terms, reality is the totality of a system, known and unknown.18 Philosophical questions about the nature of reality or existence or being are considered under the rubric of ontology, which is a major branch of metaphysics in the Western philosophical tradition.

Ontological questions also feature in diverse branches of philosophy, including the philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophical logic. These include questions about whether only physical objects are real (i.e., Physicalism), whether reality is fundamentally immaterial (e.g., Idealism), whether hypothetical unobservable entities posited by scientific theories exist, whether God exists, whether numbers and other abstract objects exist, and whether possible worlds exist.” 19 Therefore, reality perceived as and from a human perspective, serving only its needs

of understanding, represents a blend of given and chosen mindsets regarding the environment we live in. Different facts, such as numbers and colors are instruments in educative process in order to create common reality. A physical world created by history to which we can all refer the same.

17

"reality | Definition of reality in English by Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries | English. Retrieved 2017-10-28.

18 Saridakis E. (2016). "Information, reality, and modern physics". International Studies in the Philosophy of Science. 30: 327–341.

19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality#Time_and_space - 19 -

II.

LOCATION

2.1 Reality-and the meaning of it

2.1.3 PERCEPTION AND COMMON REALITY OF SPACE In architecture in recent times, the work of art is expressed to the understanding of everyone. It became more of a non-verbal language or an instrument of communication and. The means through which architecture is represented (plans, sections, etc.) are made for the common understanding, from all over the world’s cultures.

Perception is nothing more than a translation of exterior information into an internal system. It is mostly a different result from other people because it is in a strong relation with individual mind maps. Due to its form of interpretation of sensory information, perception offers a meaning to experiences, after being processed by the memory. Since the architectural experience is mostly about spaces, either exterior, either interior, it is appropriate to say that space can be a way of perceiving the environment.

Perception is the first stage, the first step into our relationship with space. It represents the interface, the first line as an organism with the environment.

Architecture in this instance becomes the scenography of the perceiving process, the architect trying to maintain balanced his own scenery, hoping, that in the same time, he will succeed to transpose his subject in the position he anticipated when designing the space.20 Our system of visual perception structures the undefined visual field into several entities: The sensation of spatiality can come from the feeling of clarity, as much as

from mystery. Constraining and abounding the experience, regularity and spontaneity.21 Space it might also have its origins outside of this reality, it can be defined as another world, either imaginative, either divine, either intellectual or creative, like the Platonian concept ‘Chora’: Chora is usually translated as a hybrid space situated at the border of eternal rational ideas and universal, of the mathematical perfection and the sensitive world, unstable and in constant change. Ideas being isolated in the perfection

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Dana Pop, Despre Perceptia Spatiului in Arhitectura Juhani Pallasma, Understanding Architecture - 20 -

II.

LOCATION

2.1 Reality-and the meaning of it

of their abstractionism by concretizing, representing a space of our perception.22 Chora represents the only common space to which we can all refer the same, as Immanuel Kant says that: “space isn’t something real, neither substance, accident or relation, it is something subjective and ideal, which flows through the fixed law of nature’s mind.

Since space is in such relation with perception, even though it has scale and it

should be measured, it only exists through the understanding and the senses of the user, opposed to what Aristotle said that “space is the sum of the places which all bodies occupies” and that also space and matter are finite.

Common reality speaks about how important is that the experience is similar to all subjects, when referring to general terms and not individual emotions. Probably colonization and globalization have the answer. It all started when people had to communicate and relate to same elements. We started labelling things and naming them in order to share meaning. We named concepts, labelled colors, numbered numbers and invent letters. Until this point individuality was most of the reality.

Nowadays not only we relate to the ones from our communities, but we relate to others, part of different communities, part of different cultures. Our local understandings are easily becoming global, because global might become the main source of perception.

There is a powerful connection between global and local and in terms of the meaning of the space this matters a lot. Most of the spaces built today tend to be born

from the local spirit of the place, the concept of Genius Loci and the adaptation to the global. This meaning that the object, occupying space in the sharing world, it is addressed mainly to everyone, due to the accessibility of travelling. By transcending common reality in the construction of each and everyone’s mind map, meanings are corelated with actions and reactions, in a strong relation with the emotional core. As Kevin Lynch presents from the conducted experiment, people have completely different understandings from the city they live in. They refer differently to the 5

22

Jacques Derrida, Peter Eisenman, Chora L Works - 21 -

II.

LOCATION

2.1 Reality-and the meaning of it

elements (the path, the node, the landmark, the edge or the district) by constructing and designing each element into their own way in order to relate to it later.23 The idea of the space created by human it is considered to be “home” only when is has the quality of receiving significations or personal symbolistic. Then and only then a bound between human and space is created, either a natural space, either a handmade one. This bound is given by the familiarization with the place, the elements

surrounding it, the function it is serving and the way we relate to it. By getting used with the space, we get comfortable and only after, we get attached, it’s beginning to mean something that was born inside us and probably it has its own space. This space of the exterior within this space from the interior, only exists through its natural values, its past and its energy as concept of unmaterial meaning of the space given by others and stocked somewhere into a collective memory, from where we can have access. 24Over time, the initial terminology associated with the sacrality of the space was misconducted and it became and evocation of unique aspects, different,

distinguished and valued of place. Jacquetta Hawkes identifies the intimate connection between the name of the place and the territory people occupy. For example, back when the Masai tribe from Kenya was relocated, it took the names of the mountains, rivers and fields and assigned them to the new territory.25 Nowadays cultures have straight connections into relating one another. The amount of common educational instruments has increased meaning that a western Caucasian and an eastern Asian can obtain similar experiences from the same space, while from their physical construction they use different forms on non-verbal language to transmit same emotions.26

Figure 9. An illustration from the study revealing the difference between Western Caucasians and Eastern Asians

23

Kevin Lynch, The Image of a City Juhani Pallasma, Understanding Architecture 25 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture 26 http://www.knowtex.com/nav/perception-of-facial-expressions-differs-acrosscultures_26115 24

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II.

LOCATION

2.1.4

2.1 Reality-and the meaning of it

HOW NON-FORMAL ELEMENTS CAN CREATE STRIKING REALITY

Taking further the existence of elements inside the city and referring to what was proven until this point about reality, I will set another hypothesis: Starting from the idea that context might be a sum of renders by subconsciousness of different subjects, I imagine a place in need of identity, in the moment of no observation. As we understood from the double slit experiment, reality changes in the moment of observation, meaning that a reality which is not altered and influenced can generate a pattern which emerges from the constructive compositional elements.

Further, from Genius Loci we find out about the perception of space and value of authenticity from the spirit of a place. Meaning that, if we eliminate the common and formal elements, the remaining ones will be the unique and non-formal elements.

As Rem Koolhas says that “context becomes nearly unimportant when something is striking enough, it builds reality around it”27. Are there enough striking elements to build individual reality?

Figure 10. Entrance in the city of Bucharest in the 70’s

27

Rem Koolhas - 23 -

II.

LOCATION

2.2 A critique of Bucharest

Figure 11

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II.

LOCATION

2.2 A critique of Bucharest

2.2.2 CREATING PROUD IDENTITY Starting from the general idea of modernity corelated with localness, while global might be related more with meta or super-modernity28, the concept and meaning of identity is taken into consideration.

Identity is simply the core definition of the subject in question. It is the authentic starting point until most representative. It is the beauty worth showing due to its

difference from others. Sometimes might be misguided with excessed beauty or excessed promotion. Often identity needs narcissism. Lacan approaches narcissism in straight relation with the myth of Narcis. He follows Freud, more exactly, the early work of his, putting the primary accent of narcissism on love for the self, more likely than auto-absorption without the object in question, or auto-sufficiency, how we understand from a later work of Freud. Firstly, he underlines the main danger of narcissism which can lead straight to self destruction.29 An exaggeration of love might become confusing for the prime aspect of identity: proudness. But creating a proud

identity starts with basic concept from psychoanalysis, like loss, when separating from the source/mother and starting to build individual meaning, like satisfaction, when fulfilling fantasies about the ideality.

Creating proud identity starts with more than identifying with certain symbols. It starts in a relation with a ‘thing’. In general terms the ‘thing’ might be translated with culture and lifestyle. A sum of objects creating an assemblage from the most representative, the non-formal as we earlier understood. This assemblage has to be

integrated; it has something to do with what Neil Leach calls architectural Camouflage. A theory of masks about identities over identities: “Camouflage does not determinate only a hidden self, but also a relation between the self with the ambient through representation.”30 Most of artistic expressions operate with something of a mediator between self and context in order to offer an answer about the truth, even it might be a subject of interpretation, becoming Hermeneutics. But only then, the bravery of becoming something creates association, further on a memory.

28

Rem Koolhas, Delirious New York Neil Leach, Camouflage 30 Neil Leach, Camouflage, p. 357 29

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LOCATION

2.2 A critique of Bucharest

Figure 12 Anastasia Saniova-Genius Loci

Breaking down “authentic fragments and details of architectural environment” in her mixed media practice, Russian artist Anastasia Savinova creates collages, drawings and wooden sculptures that harness the symbolic energy of various motifs and materials. Whether physical or representational, the wood, geometry, bricks and tiles of buildings make up Savinova’s visual language, allowing her to weave narrative across various cultures and storylines. One of her most recent projects, Genius Loci explores differences and similarities between places of habitation—capturing and collaging the faces of buildings in an effort to understand “the feeling of Place.”31

31

https://www.arch2o.com/genius-loci-anastasia-savinova/ - 26 -

II.

LOCATION

2.2 A critique of Bucharest

2.2.3 URBAN STRUCTURE X-RAY The subject in question happens to be the city of Bucharest. A city of great potential for an identity analysis in order to create one. The potential is given from its history and ways of developing, from its continuously changing structure but still being part of adaptation processes, from the ever-hybrid society and culture and from the extremely spontaneous artefacts appearing and disappearing in the urban landscape.

The hypothesis started with identifying the non-formal urban elements in order to synthesis a composition and define it as a proud identity. Proudness comes from promotion and assumption while identity comes from within.

Firstly, and most important when looking after patterns of co-presence in Bucharest, frequented public spaces will be the ones red on a map. Ann Legeby presents in her thesis why this is important: “the main concern in this thesis is to arrive at a deeper understanding of the critical role urban form plays in terms of co-presence in public space and in extension for social segregation. (…) arguing that co-presence is of

utmost importance for societal processes: by sharing space and being co-present with other, which does not necessarily imply focused interaction, we gain information and knowledge from our fellow citizens and participate in processes that negotiate social structures, acceptable behaviors and identities.”32 This speaks mostly about urban identity and its capacity of interaction. From the perspective of Ciprian Mihai, contemporary urban identity is similar to: “collective and permanent constructions where individual reflexivity intersects with the consciousness of a community for embracing values, beliefs and collective rituals.”33 Secondly, there is the hunt for rare and valuable frames composed of typical elements, in Bucharest most probably eclectic, hidden or in constant interaction with a series of layers, more likely vernacular or hand-made with a rural twist: the telegraphs and electricity wires, closed balconies, falling plaster exposing structure, a chaotic lack of design in the pedestrian way, the collage of multiple types of concrete, the holes and imperfections in the street, the courtyards deepen inside the center of the urban island and so on.

32 33

Ann Legeby, Patterns of Co-presence”, p. i Augustin Ioan and Ciprian Mihai, Identitate Urbana, p.24 - 27 -

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2.2 A critique of Bucharest

Figure 13 Personal collage on x-ray architecture

There are mainly two big similitudes between architecture of urbanity and the act of x-ray. On one side there is the power of the obtained image. It is a scan showing the

bone structure much more enhanced than the rest of the body exactly like any urban landscape image where some elements are more visible than others, as seen in figure 12. On the other hand, there is the comparison between illness and architecture as Beatriz Colomina writes in her book ‘X-ray Architecture’. It speaks about, how after a complex scan of the selected area, it becomes very visible what seems to behave like a non-natural organism and what seems to belong. And from this result there is also clear the character and the position of the element in need of elimination.34

34

Beatrice Colomina, X-ray Architecture - 28 -

II.

LOCATION

2.2 A critique of Bucharest

2.2.4 THE SPIRIT OF THE PLACE These types of non-formality raise a huge amount of awareness. It brings the conscious mind into being present and later on co-present. It creates a manifest from the occidental type of automatic routine, where the path is without personal control, similar to the ones in airports or the ones in slaughterhouses, by capturing attention and obliging the mind to be careful in order to survive. Similar to a jungle, urbanity in Bucharest, has natural laws only to create patterns but not to ne respected. Freedom is most likely to be the main feeling corelated to functional way of the city. Other feelings conquer when using spaces, feelings from the same spectra with curiosity.

There are all sorts of invitations and places to hide. Labyrinths and mazes through the big formal elements like modernist blocks of flats or interwar houses. Its complexity is given from heavy prints of historical changes that are still extremely visible, allowing reality to call for the truth. Its readable marks of time set the landscape into an atemporality rather than place with time. Dana Harhoiu writes about the spirit of the place in her book “Bucharest, a city between Orient and Occident”35. The name comes specifically from the way the city appeared, between the Ottoman markets and the German cities. The first documented attestation appears in 1459, six years after the fall of Constantinople. Meaning that the biggest Cristian drama ever to exist, stands for the basic source for the appearance of the city. Only further in 1761, first writings appear about how the city was born, from a local shepherd that build a church on the place where he was feeding his sheep. This pastoral scenery connection is still alive these days inside the urban core, mostly hidden underneath layers and layers of grey matter. Modelling an identity has to pass through the birth of ethical and aesthetical, while these are revendicated by the political factor, representing a fight for emancipation and evolution. This fight for identity is given by the ‘law of the jungle’ the fight for survival where domination represents the territory and its character. More likely the territory is public and the public space in Bucharest has failed to be neutral and also to set the non-violent meeting and the radical alteration, to center in the middle of the community the neutrality of their values or neither. With other words, public space is founded on sacred terms.36

35 36

Dana Harhoiu, Bucuresti, un oras intre Orient si Occident Augustin Ioan, Bucurestii. Lumea, p. 53. / Christian Norberg Schulz, Genius Loci - 29 -

II.

LOCATION

2.2 A critique of Bucharest

Probably in the case of Bucharest , after a detailed x-ray of the city some might observe that most of the illnesses are part of an elaborate and self-sufficient organism that learned how to live with them.37 It is not like in the case of the human body where it might lead to the death of the organism but moreover in the case of the urban landscape of the city this, somehow, became a new spirit of the city, it is like in the case of the Greek temple where, the stone on top which the temple was built offered the value further on to the construction and in the same time the temple fulfills what the rock is trying to say.38 As observed in the image below, the rock is represented by the simple and organized modernist Bucharest, while the temple is formed by all this small and unique elements due to its life-giving character.

39

Figure 14 In-formal Bucharest, Tudor Elian 37

Beatrice Colomina, X-ray Architecture Christian Norberg Schulz, Genius Loci 39 Tudor Elian, Bucurestiul Informal, Teza de doctorat coordonata de prof.dr.arh. Ana Maria Zahariade 38

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PROGRAM: GLOBAL CITY

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III.

PROGRAM

3.1 Public- and the meaning of it

Figure 15 - 32 -

III PROGRAM

Public -and the meaning of it

3.1.2 DEFINITION Public(noun)- “Definition of public (entry 2 of 2) pub·lic | \ ˈpə-blik: 1: a place accessible or visible to the public”40 •

Public(space)- “A public space is a place that is generally open and accessible to people. Roads (including the pavement), public squares, parks and beaches are typically considered public space. To a limited extent, government buildings which are open to the public, such as public libraries are public spaces, although they tend to have restricted areas and greater limits upon use. Although not considered public space, privately owned buildings or property visible from sidewalks and public thoroughfares may affect the public visual landscape, for example, by outdoor advertising.”41

•

“Space accessible to everyone, that can be appropriated but not owned; setting for countless heterogeneous actions and actors that is not the result of a specific morphology, but of the articulation of sensible qualities produced by the practical operations and time-space schematizations procured, live, by its users.”42

Freedom and choice are a few concepts that influences the definition of a space that can be perceived as public. After understanding in the previous chapters a few meanings about space itself, we can now corelate it with a perception of the surrounding environment. Few plug-ins can change the meaning or rather transform the perception into something more descriptive for the mind to imagine, like covered space, interior space, etc. These kinds of add-ons can be more or less clear when it comes to the paradigm of the word, meaning that the idea of public can be restricted only with other layer of comprehension. The difference between the understandings might come from cultural differences and practices but also from the different levels of knowledge and education: Any desired space related to a human scale

40

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/public https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_space 42 Susanna Cros (coord), The metapolis dictionary of advanced architecture 41

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III PROGRAM

Public -and the meaning of it

3.1.3 MOST PUBLIC POSSIBLE BY ACTIVITIES There would be no possible definition of what spaces are public before defining the public space and there is no possible definition of the public space without organizing the spaces after a degree of accessibility. This constrain can set a general non-relative way of understanding the space and its activities: The question starts with what accessibility really has as boundaries, because there are

a finite number of possible ways between two extremities such as the most public and the most private (in essence). This axis is also constrained by general input factors of a society such as economical, social and cultural. From a philosophical point of view any type of space becomes accessible when desired so there shouldn’t be any obstacles between an idea and its realization or between a need and its having. For example, in a ghetto of a poor society and typical cultural qualities where the social pressure is weak and the need of survival is present any kind of space can become public when desired, even the most private, such as the house. Also, the street,

perceived as the most public, might be unused in some cultures and societies driven by a set of rules, when it becomes undesired.

Desire might be the keyword when it comes to public space due to what the interest to the specific space it presents to the subject. This kind of urban attractiveness comes only with activities allowance, meaning that whenever a space becomes more interesting than another, it becomes more intense, therefore more public: “(…) about the Roman Forum,(…) People passed by without having any specific purpose, without doing anything: it was like the modern city, where the man in the crowd, the idler, participates in the mechanism of the city without knowing it, sharing only its image. The Roman Forum thus was an urban artefact of extraordinary modernity; in it was everything that is inexpressible in the modern city.”43 Once the public space transcends to an interior space, the adaptation process is completely different. The perception of the space must be completely neutral and featureless, subtracted by the essence of the space in order to feel welcome.44

43 44

Aldo Rossi, Architecture of the city, p.120 Jacques Derrida, Peter Eisenman, Chora L Works - 34 -

III PROGRAM

Public -and the meaning of it

3.1.4 OTHER PUBLIC CONCEPTS Existence through emptiness core.: We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move, we shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use.”45- Lao Tzu. The same observation works in the case of the mechanism of the city. - The empty square in the center of the city, lays on the basis of its core foundation and also dependent on its existence, similar to a wheel where its entire being is determined by the nothingness in the center. This kind of public spaces has a similar behavior with a living room inside an individual dwelling. It is the place where you actually live in order to use other spaces.46 Outgrowth: Whatever form of life exists by itself in any environment, there will always be organisms seeking to attach to them. And if they are welcoming enough to allow the birth

of new form of life them phenomenon of outgrowth appears.

The same scenario may happen at an urban scale as well with several public spaces, like streets. If there is attractiveness and neutrality among it, it will generate intensity through activities.

Figure 16-Outgrowth

Dynamism: Whenever the space is being used by an interaction it might become public, resulting the idea of movement inside the space that generates meaning. With other words, there might be no architecture without this essence but also the birth of it: "...the problem with buildings is that they look desperately static. It seems almost impossible to grasp them as movement, as flight, as a series of transformations.

Everybody knows...that a building is not a static object but a moving project."47. The same with the chess game which presents no beauty without the movement of its mechanism explored during play.48

45

Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching) Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mau: S, M, L, XL 47 Bruno Latour: “GIVE ME A GUN AND I WILL MAKE ALL BUILDINGS MOVE”: 48 OMA, Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mau: S, M, L, XL, 46

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III.

PROGRAM

3.2 Global scenario

Figure 17 - 36 -

III PROGRAM

3.2Global Scenario

3.2.2 TOURISM ATTRACTOR For an element to become an attractor it does not imply only the factor of attractiveness. It is more likely that its success stands in the outcome of good advertisement and smart promoting. In order for something to attract it needs to have the capability to receive. And in order to receive this element must be part of a stable system: “an attractor is defined as anything in which something stabilizes.”49 The essence of an attractor is that it generates qualities and it empowers the context through global means. It creates a general perception upon an idea, which normally it might have completely different meanings.-It creates an attractor in thought.50 An example of such amplitude is The Zeche Zollverein project in Essen, Germany, revitalized by OMA. The site belonged to one of the biggest coal mines in Europe, forming an industrial complex. In 1986 it stopped

Figure 18 The Zeche Zollverein Project-OMA

working and it was bought by the government in order to declare is as monument, later on to be added in UNESCO Heritage. In 2001, Rem Koolhaas presented a masterplan that should have been developed over eight years and introduced a new program, including business areas, information and education, art and design, events and services, all placed around the historic buildings as if it were the walls of a city that, rather than isolate, connect and attract.51 Today Zollverein has developed and changed from being a private and industrial place to being a public space, with a 1.5 million visitors a year and a great cultural center

oriented towards arts and design with an extensive program of activities: “The Zeche Zollverein in Essen, Germany, is a Jurassic Park of Bauhaus architecture.”52

49

Susanna Cros (coord), The metapolis dictionary of advanced architecture http://predmet.fa.uni-lj.si/architecture-research/2018/article/attractors-inthought.html?fbclid=IwAR3M7BiWJCVz2mvpecklLiaDjZjNGBT03E5LqaUWTFG3eS00 OdDVpbTLdlI 50

51

https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/walled-city-zollverein-oma

52

https://www.iconeye.com/architecture/item/2459-zeche-zollverein-%7C-icon-040%7C-october-2006 - 37 -

III PROGRAM

3.2Global Scenario

3.2.3 OTHER GLOBAL CHARACTERISTICS Caravanserai: “Caravanserais were roadside inns along major trade routes like the ancient Silk Road, that doubled as hubs for the exchange of goods, ideas, and culture.�53 This anthropological concept was one of the first places in which the main function transcended into something of a global scale. Mainly designed to host travelers, this kind of roadside

Figure 19 Caravanserai in Iran

inn become a major cultural exchange place. This was a very early example on how common reality was build upon information regarding the world we live in, further on to be added with the information about how the world looks from up in the sky, in order to enhance the sense of existence.

Sight from above: The need of control is quite likely to manifest itself in a built environment. Thus, the human perception which is tightly connected with the sense of orientation will always have the desire of exploration. If the subject of discussion is a

tourist, the first place to visit in a new city should be the highest point of interest from where the entire reality can be comprehended. As Rem Koolhas presents about the first skyscrapers ever built in the early ages of modernity and how they changed completely the lives of the inhabitants that were the capable to grasp a view from an above reality.54 It is somehow closer to God, closer to home of our own ideas and being capable of underlining them into one single image it is a sort of a miracle.

Exquisite corps: The traditional surrealist game of consequences has a huge impact on the comparison between how influential truly globalization in architecture is. The game involves a piece of paper, folded horizontally, onto each, in turn, each member of the group draws a part of the body, without being able to see what others have drawn on the paper. The result is a body or character of composite parts.55 This idea emphasizes different perspectives of personal imagination into a whole that becomes valid from the 53

Figure 20 ChapmanExquisite corps-2000

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/caravanserai/ Rem Koolhas, Delirious New York 55 https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/chapman-exquisite-corpsep78459?fbclid=IwAR01F3gtytyC-8AtkJ9yWjSx-I4G9HS_SV-IFR05A0XEmnw4uCWQXPJjy0 54

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III PROGRAM

3.2Global Scenario

global point of view. A creation of multiple subjects generates multiple views upon realities, it is a proof of co-presence into a sharing world with common elements. It creates an assemblage of different sources into an object with the same purpose.

Assemblage theory: “The abstract machine is like the diagram of an assemblage. It draws lines of continuous variation, while the concrete assemblage treats variables and

organizes their highly diverse relations as a function of those lines. The assemblage negotiates variables at this or that level of variation, according to this or that degree of deterritorialization, and determines which variables will enter into constant relations or obey obligatory rules and which will serve instead as a fluid matter for variation. We should not conclude from this that the assemblage brings only a certain resistance or inertia to bear against the abstract machine; for even ‘constants’ are essential to the determination of the virtualities through which the variation passes, they are themselves optionally

chosen”56 Manuel DeLanda’s theory speaks about a crucial component of assemblage: diagram.

Diagram as an instrument of communication, related to a global scale, unifying cultures into their main structural element, “from individual atoms and molecules to individual cities and countries”57. He defines the assemblage as a multiplicity of many heterogeneous terms which establishes relations between them, across ages, sexes and reigns-different natures: “Thus, the assemblage’s only unity is that of a cofunctioning: it is a symbiosis, a ‘sympathy’. It is never filiations which are important,

but alliances, alloys; these are not successions, lines of descent, but contagions, epidemics, the wind.”58 It generates a new philosophy of a society as the title suggests, into approaching the core quality of life: interrelating. In order to create a structure of relations and connectivity across the world, it is needed a common starting point in the sense of meaning.

56

Deleuze and Guattari, A thousand plateaus Manuel DeLanda, Theory of Assemblage 58 Manuel DeLanda, Theory of Assemblage, p. 3 57

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III PROGRAM

3.2Global Scenario

3.2.4 STREET EXTENSION From former arguments, a relation between the conclusion of the public space and the global scenario is simply the idea of the street. It presents itself as the corridor of the city, as the hallway between spaces. It is an example of a non-place with neutral qualities, suitable for a public space, because it belongs to no one but in the same time it is accessible to everyone: “As a result, we might be tempted to contrast the symbolized space of place with the non-symbolized space of non-place(…)This is me in front of the Parthenon, you would later say(…)” .59 This kind of association with a specific space, generates a place, besides any given point along the side of the street, which might be lost in translation. When referring to a specific edifice, the relation with the physical place si so strong, that there is no possible solution of creating an extension to that place. It is limited to its boundaries; other wise it would be the birth of a new place itself.

This being said, most suitable extension of a public space would be the street. It starts and ends with infinity. Its public qualities generated in time the association with subcultural activities such as skateboarding, graffiti and so on, giving birth to the idea of conquering the world you live in. Bjarke Ingels deals with the fact of conquering buildings by emphasizing the power of architecture. The level of the street goes all the way up to the roof and eliminating completely the unknown from a built structure.

This way all the elements of a city can transcend through the extension of the street into the building and also on top of it. The layer of the park and the garden becomes accessible, creating an extension of the roots, the layer of the public market or any commercial aspect can introduce itself onto the outer shell of the building. 60 This way, this idea of a street extension it is the meaningful source of an autonomous building, creating a stack of existing layers into an accessible and extensive part of the city. It becomes touchable in all ways possible.

A manifesto on modernity is presented also by Robert Venturi, emphasizing the idea of accessibility into buildings and their true value for humanity. The entire being of a construction is a way of persuasion for architecture and the true meaning of stands in its potential into serving purpose of functionality.61

59

Auge Marc, Non-Places https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9rye_X-qhY&t=10s 61 Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Learning from Las Vegas 60

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IV.

DESIGN: EARTH PALACE

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IV.

DESIGN

4.1 Technology- and the meaning of it

Figure 21

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IV DESIGN

4.1 Technology- and the meaning of it

4.1.2 DEFINITION Technology “("science of craft", from Greek τέχνη, techne, "art, skill, cunning of hand"; and -λογία, -logia[2]) is the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, or it can be embedded in machines to allow for operation without detailed knowledge of their workings. Systems (e.g. machines) applying technology by taking an input, changing it according to the system's use, and then producing an outcome are referred to as technology systems”62 The simplest form of technology is the development and use of basic tools. It will always be corelated with the idea and process of evolution being perceived as the basic instrument into fulfilling it. In architecture it stands as one of the most important aspects and in straight connection with its modernity, durability and contemporaneity.

It is also seen as the key to being updated through means of reflecting the present times and also heading towards the future.

Beyond the idea of progress, technology lays also the bases of the unconventional through vision into the basic elements, like dynamism and movement. The idea of a building being alive within its boundaries through intensity. In Bernard Tschumi’s vision, architecture is not only about space and form, but about events, actions and what does space allows to happen. In his book, ‘The Manhattan Transcripts’ has

different drawings than its precedents only because it represents something between real projections and fantasies. Realized in the late 70’s, they suggest something of an architectural interpretation of reality. Therefore, he made use of the latest technology for capturing reality: photography of what was invisible until this point. Functions and programs within architectural spaces and moreover the complex relation between the space and its user. His pictures, drawings and diagrams represent an example of the struggle for discovering that new instrument or tool for designing, which Bruno Latour was also speaking about in his essay about Marey.63 Within new discoveries,

62 63

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology Bruno Latour, Give me a gun and I will make all buildings move - 43 -

IV DESIGN

4.1 Technology- and the meaning of it

struggles and experimentation, there is a chance of a more profound understanding regarding architecture and the way it functions inside this real and dynamic space we are currently living in. 64 Nowadays this whole analysis is moving towards the digital sphere. It is already a culture and it belongs to the entire world. It does not come as a source of our origins but as an answer for our needs. It became the new tool for designing because of its

emergent power for analysis, accessibility, speed and limitless opportunities.

Given how important digital technology has become to our lives it is useful to know what the word ‘digital’ actual means. In technical terms it is used to refer to data in the form of discrete elements. Though it could refer to almost any numerical system, used to describe phenomena in discrete terms over the last 60 or so years, the word has become synonymous with the technology which has made much of the aforementioned possible, electronic digital binary computers. To some extent the terms ‘computer technology’ and ‘digital technology’ have become interchangeable.

Computers are digital because they manipulate and store data in digital, binary form, zeroes and ones. But, as the above indicates, the term digital has come to mean far more than simply either discrete data or the machines that use such data. To speak of the digital is to praise the concept of global connectivity that constitutes much of our contemporary experience.65

Figure 22: The Manhattan Transcripts- diagram

64 65

Bernard Tschumi, The Manhattan Transcripts Charlie Gere, The Digital Culture - 44 -

IV DESIGN

4.1 Technology- and the meaning of it

4.1.3

THEORETICAL CASE STUDIES

Archigram: In late 1960’s Archigram group was manifesting and fighting for erasing all limits and barriers of forma, shape and content, real or imaginary from buildings and literature.

They are responsible for creating a sum of utopic projects with which they managed to demonstrate how the world of ideas can be materialized. This project is completely

influenced by this new understanding of limits. The need of eliminating barriers stimulates evolution in architecture, especially in a time where in contemporaneity progress seems to lack vision upon a future scenario.

As François Roche was observing, there is a harmful addiction between past and present, only because there is a constant try of defining the future from the very strict approach upon what already happened. Therefore, ‘the’ future loses its authenticity.

This way future is being relieved of its content by representing only an uncertain period of time. The way the project is being adapted to this period is by referring to the future as it was concepted in 60’s. As a new world that has to be created, as a must, which will be identified with our future generations. During Archigram 3 experiments, the group developed an improved vocabulary for single-use architecture.

Step by step, the group started to develop its own movement and it separated even more from the conventional language. More important is how the experiments inside Plug-in City and Walking City, created values that embodied and completely replaced existent modernist values, that will later become useful for a continuous evolution.66

67

Figure 23: Archigram-Walking City

66

Archigram, p.48-50 http://walkingthecityupolis.blogspot.com/2011/03/guest-post-archigrams-walkingcity.html 67

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IV DESIGN

4.1 Technology- and the meaning of it

Fun Palace: This project, belonging to Cedric Price, is not referring to a building in the conventional way of the term, but more to a machinery of social interaction, extremely flexible to the climatic and cultural conditions, which are also variable.

Price is developing and moreover, refining the concept of an interactive architecture, which is performant and quite adaptive to the needs and desire of the user. Through

personal knowledge and interests, the subjects were able to start a journey of creativity and interaction with the use of modularity, cranes and industrial elements.

Fun Palace was one of the most innovative and creative solutions for spending time in postwar England.68 It was a paradox and a challenge for the definition of architecture itself, because it wasn’t even a building by all means, but more likely a skeleton capable of generating a machinery. More of a virtual architecture, combining art and technology. It wasn’t a school or a museum, a theatre or an amusement parc and still it could become all of these things one at a time. It became something like an environment of interaction for people and a process of answering issues. In the mid 60’s it became a vast social experiment and Price saw it as a new way of presenting new experiences to the British audience, for which free time was growing substantially. The architecture he had in mind during his designing process, was a dynamic one, always adapting to change by have multiple types of uses. It would have been a grid for numerous upcoming events and an oscillating space between congruent activities. Spaces were supposed to be different by size, color, lighting and shape. His first drawings represented the confusing spectacle of a tridimensional matrices, with several fragments inserted every elsewhere. The projected was described like a vast, independent ship, where theatres, cinematographs, restaurants, working studios, meeting areas and many other functions were capable of changing location by moving them, replacing them and so on. It was the grid of a constant activity, which had no end, because its plan, program and final goal were never finite and in permanent change.69

68 69

http://www.bcchang.com/transfer/articles/2/18346584.pdf Cedric Price, Fun Palace - 46 -

IV DESIGN

4.1 Technology- and the meaning of it

Figure 24: Cedric Price-Conceptual drawing of Fun Palace

Superstudio: Maybe one of the fundamental pillars in the utopian movement for observing the future is the superstudio group, founded in 1966, in Florence, Italy. The initiators were Adolfo Natalini and Cristiano Toraldo. They played a major part in the Radical Architecture movement of the late 60’s, by establishing three categories of future research: “architecture of the monument”, architecture of the image”, and “technomorphic architecture”. The most famous manifest of theirs happened in 1969 and was called “Continuous Monument: An Architecture Model For Total Urbanization”. It presented a radical strike for the critique of the urban planning at that time, by means of non-architectural compositions for proposing grid systems as a way to meditate space.70 The aim was for social change through architecture. Adolfo Natalini wrote in 1971 “...if design is merely an inducement to consume, then we must reject design; if architecture is merely the codifying of bourgeois model of ownership and society, then we must reject architecture; if architecture and town planning is merely the formalization of present unjust social divisions, then we must reject town planning and its cities...until all design activities are aimed towards meeting primary needs. Until then, design must disappear. We can live without architecture..." 71

70 71

https://www.archdaily.com/tag/superstudio Didero Cristina, SuperDesign: Italian Radical Design - 47 -

IV DESIGN

4.1 Technology- and the meaning of it

4.1.4

BUILT CASE STUDIES

Pompidou Center: The national art and culture center in Paris has a program for a multi-cultural institution, designed by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. It was inaugurated in 1977 for serving as the host for modern and contemporary creation from the heart of Paris.

The building has a smart program with multiple interchangeable activities and is the

living example for adaptive architecture. It responds fast and accurate to new needs and it is doing so, constantly for the past 50 years, without failure. In 2006, the building had no less than 6,6 million visitors yearly. 72 This type of building it was described as the key to any society driven by a social machinery. Due to its original concept that also won the competition for designing the building. The space was drawn as a permanent flow of dynamism inside a museum. The interior gains maximum amount of space by moving all technical functions and circulations on the exterior, generating a completely new perception of movement. Instead of being trapped inside during the passage of a functional space, you are pulled out towards the city and feeling the exposure by feeling exposed. The relation of the building with city lays exactly into this kind of exposure, by making visible all the hidden elements that infrastructures the building. This kind of gesture creates a very tentative urbanity, generating a lot of intensity in the surroundings. This way in front of it, there is an empty filed like a piazza in order to connect with the building.73

Figure 25 Personal sketch of Pompidou Center 72

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Georges_Pompidou https://www.archdaily.com/64028/ad-classics-centre-georges-pompidou-renzopiano-richard-rogers 73

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IV DESIGN

4.1 Technology- and the meaning of it

Seattle Library: “The Seattle Central Library redefines the library as an institution no longer exclusively dedicated to the book, but as an information store where all potent forms of media—new and old—are presented equally and legibly”74 Although each platform has a different purpose and is dedicated to a different function, the entire building works in union, for the collective, being flexible and performant entirely.

Dutch Pavilion-Expo2000: “Holland creates Space”: the theme for the Netherlands Pavilion at the 2000 World Expo in Hannover was intended to showcase a country making the most out of limited space. Six stacked Dutch landscapes form an independent eco-system communicating Dutch cultural sustainability: the combination of progressive thinking and contemporary culture with traditional values. The architecture suggests Dutch openmindedness whilst referencing stereotypes associated with the Dutch landscape: tulips, windmills and dykes.”75

Figure 26 -personal sketch of

Figure 27 personal sketch of

Dutch Pavilion by MVRDV

Seattle Library by OMA

74 75

https://www.archdaily.com/11651/seattle-central-library-oma-lmn https://www.mvrdv.nl/projects/158/expo-2000 - 49 -

IV.

DESIGN

4.2 Diploma Project

Figure 28 - 50 -

IV DESIGN

4.2 Diploma project

4.2.2 COMPOSITION The sum of concepts presented above in this paper are constructed in such manner for a complete understanding of the principles underlaying the Diploma project. As presented before, the instrument for designing the project is technology as a tool for progress and innovation in terms of better use of the space through a performant composition. It should be formed by selected non-formal elements from critique x-ray for creating a local identity. It will be layered on different levels representing each urban landscape that influences its reality, probably the piazza, the park, the market, the gang and so on. They will be connected through an extension of the street connected with the context and going all the way up to the top. A multitude of scattered volumes with specific courtyards attached will determinate the ground floor, a huge volume will connect them and generate the first floor and succession of huge suspended beams will create the street extension, while each roof will be in a series of retreated terraces towards the top. This localness is supposed to become proud.

4.2.3

FUNCTION

The multiple series of programs inserted to the building will be flexible enough to satisfy the global scenario, authentic enough to represent the local scenario and neutral enough to fulfil a public space in its essence. Each platform will host different types of activities. The ground floor will have a huge food-court connected with the functions of the existent buildings on the site, which are coffee shops and restaurants.

The next layer will represent the economical aspect of the society and will be designed for a huge ad hoc workspace, the next one is created to emerge as a local market, being surrounded by a build skin and generated inside a piazza. The layer will host a huge green space filled with activities of such manner and also support the next layers of the city which are supposed to enhance a series of events, like an on-going spectacle of social intensity, interaction and urban activities, while the long-side of the street will always be the sitting bench for admiring life.

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IV DESIGN

4.2 Diploma project

4.2.4

EXPRESSION

As exampled in the previous references as analyzed case studies, the aesthetic aspect of the building will be very expressive, proud and decisive. Moreover, it will be an outcome of the existing context by reinterpreting the city’s feelings. Earth, as mud will be the defining material for the expression of the building by filling all the outside shell of the suspended beams. This earth may be the ground for a flourishing nature to pour down upon the city. The entire skin of the building will unveil a completely different core, more connected to a global reality, relatable for tourists from all over the world from its neutrality and lack of defining elements.

Figure 29 Personal proposal for Diploma project/ concept phase/pre-diploma - 52 -

CONCLUSION As a result, for the entire study of concepts, terminologies, philosophies, historical visions, and different architectural views and examples, we can affirm that there is a difference between designing inside a Euclidian space and inside a reality in which there is the context. In order to lose this barrier, firstly there is the need of awareness and secondly the need of experimenting through analyzing and exploring the world through different perspectives of reality itself.

The Intention chapter lays down the bases of a hypothesis capable of generating enough arguments for creating a concept about how reality is questionable, from a very theoretical point of view but also a scientific one.

Meaning that reality can be borrowed, perceived but also built and if one chooses to build a new striking reality, what shall it take? The next chapter unveils this answer.

The Location chapter sets the ground for a context in need of identity, finding a scene of Bucharest made out of non-formal elements, waiting to be recomposed in order to generate value.

The Program chapter makes everything possible by re-assigning the definition of public to a new perspective, more incline towards neutrality through attractiveness and intensity through social interaction by relating them to a global scale and finding out that the street itself has the biggest potential of reinterpretation into an extension and several plug ins for it.

The Design chapter makes use of different technological instruments in order to make everything happen by shout outing towards performance inside a social machinery created to generate intensity inside and identity outside.

After crossing this series of consecutive steps for describing the essence that lays behind the project, the vision is clear and the starting point for designing more solid.: A proud space in the center of Bucharest was born, it is made out of a reinterpretation of local elements making it an attractor and the first place to visit when arrived in the city therefore the most pleasant to return. It feels like the street from whatever part of the world it extends all the way up to the sky and along it, it’s filled with activities as a spectacle of life. It’s called the Earth Palace and it’s exactly like a global city.

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Webography 1.

2.

https://www.iconeye.com/architecture/item/2459-zeche-zollverein-%7C-icon-040-%7Coctober-2006 https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/light

3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RWOpQXTltA&list=PL6upg1JNDpCmP8pqS9LrahqZ3 wLLu0th1&index=3&t=0s

4.

5.

6.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uva6gBEpfDY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-MNSLsjjdo&t=606s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h75DGO3GrF4&list=PL6upg1JNDpCmP8pqS9LrahqZ3 wLLu0th1&index=4&t=10s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality#Time_and_space

7.

8. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/public 9. https://www.arch2o.com/genius-loci-anastasia-savinova/ 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_space 11. https://www.featurepics.com/online/Outgrowth-Trunk-2682480.aspx 12. ttp://predmet.fa.uni-lj.si/architecture-research/2018/article/attractors-inthought.html?fbclid=IwAR3M7BiWJCVz2mvpecklLiaDjZjNGBT03E5LqaUWTFG3eS00Od DVpbTLdlI 13. https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/walled-city-zollverein-oma 14. http://predmet.fa.uni-lj.si/architecture-research/2018/article/attractors-inthought.html?fbclid=IwAR3M7BiWJCVz2mvpecklLiaDjZjNGBT03E5LqaUWTFG3eS00Od DVpbTLdlI 15. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/caravanserai/ 16. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/chapman-exquisite-corpsep78459?fbclid=IwAR01F3gtytyC-8AtkJ9yWjSx-I4G9HS_SV-IFR05A0XEmnw4uCWQXPJjy0 17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9rye_X-qhY&t=10s 18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology 19. https://www.archdaily.com/548021/bernard-tschumi-on-his-education-work-andwritings/541468abc07a80f112000076-bernard-tschumi-on-his-education-work-and-writingsimage 20. http://walkingthecityupolis.blogspot.com/2011/03/guest-post-archigrams-walking-city.html 21. http://www.bcchang.com/transfer/articles/2/18346584.pdf 22. https://www.archdaily.com/64028/ad-classics-centre-georges-pompidou-renzo-piano-richardrogers 23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Georges_Pompidou 24. https://www.archdaily.com/11651/seattle-central-library-oma-lmn 25. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstudio 26. https://www.archdaily.com/tag/superstudio 27. https://www.mvrdv.nl/projects/158/expo-2000

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List of Illustrations 1.

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3.

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5.

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Figure 1: edited image of Hammershoi painting for personal project: Public space.-personal project Figure 2: Cover Album of The Dark Side of the Moon, by Pink Floydhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon Figure 3: Tropism at plants.

-https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/tropism Figure 4: Ethics and argument in Plato’s Republic. Summer 1994. Steven S. tiger & Tonya Geckle -https://ro.pinterest.com/pin/137500594846413059/ Figure 5: Perception upon different realities -https://jitelixir2k19.wixsite.com/elixir2k19/events-1/picture-perception Figure 6: the interference pattern -https://curiosity.com/topics/the-double-slit-experiment-cracked-reality-wide-open-curiosity/ Figure 7: the pattern in the moment of observation -https://plus.maths.org/content/physics-minute-double-slit-experiment-0 Figure 8: Illustration for the meaning of reality - https://undraw.co/search Figure 9: An illustration from the study revealing the difference between Western Caucasians and Eastern Asians - http://www.knowtex.com/nav/perception-of-facial-expressions-differs-acrosscultures_26115 Figure 10: Entrance in the city of Bucharest in the 70’s -unknown source, personal archive collection Figure 11: Collage of non formal elements in Bucharest -personal project Figure 12: Genius Loci Collage By Anastasia Saniova --https://www.arch2o.com/genius-loci-anastasia-savinova/ Figure 13: Personal collage on x-ray architecture -personal project Figure 14: In-formal Bucharest, Tudor Elian file:///F:/silviu/01_ARHITECTURA/01_DOCUMENTATIE/01_CARTZ/01_CARTI%20DIZ ERTATIE/REZUMAT_DR_Tudor_Elian.pdf Figure 15: Illustration for the meaning of Public - https://undraw.co/search Figure 16:-Outgrowth -https://www.featurepics.com/online/Outgrowth-Trunk-2682480.aspx Figure 17: Illustration for the meaning of Global -https://undraw.co/search Figure 18: The Zeche Zollverein Project-OMA -https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/walled-city-zollverein-oma Figure 19: Caravanserai in Iran -https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/caravanserai/ Figure 20: Chapman-Exquisite corps-2000 -https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/chapman-exquisite-corpsep78459?fbclid=IwAR01F3gtytyC-8AtkJ9yWjSx-I4G9HS_SV-IFR05A0XEmnw4uCWQXPJjy0 Figure 21: Illustration for the meaning of Technology --https://undraw.co/search Figure 21: The Manhattan Transcripts- diagram - https://www.archdaily.com/548021/bernard-tschumi-on-his-education-work-andwritings/541468abc07a80f112000076-bernard-tschumi-on-his-education-work-and-writingsimage

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23. Figure 23: Archigram-Walking City -http://walkingthecityupolis.blogspot.com/2011/03/guest-post-archigrams-walking-city.html 24. Figure 24: Cedric Price-Conceptual drawing of Fun Palace -https://moooarch.com/fun-palace/ 25. Figure 25: Personal sketch of Pompidou Center by Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers - personal project 26. Figure 26: Personal sketch of Dutch Pavilion by MVRDV - personal project 27. Figure 27: Personal sketch of Seattle Library by OMA - personal project 28. Figure 28: Illustration for an architectural project - https://undraw.co/search 29. Figure 29: Personal proposal for Diploma project/ concept phase/pre-diploma - personal project

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Addenda

“When thinking about the world, there is a balance between the local identity born from its environmental context and the relation with the global scale, in order to create a common reality that will last as a timeless memory for the copresence of all beings.�

DORIN STEFAN (during class)

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