Landscape of Waiting Sixin Liang “Wait, and embrace the tension between now and the next thing to happen.” This is the sentence of my last presentation. In this way, I would like to define liminal space as a patio-temporal term: WAITING. “No physical structure can ever be everlasting or immune to the passage of time.” “…buildings are not fixed, static objects rooted to a single moment and impervious to change…” “…In all these ways, architecture can be recognized and valued as an evolving and uncertain process extending over time rather than as an immutable, pristine object imprisoned by a single moment. A building can be considered mutable and changing: an open and unstable system composed of flows of energy and matter; a series of layers subject to change (site, structure, skin, services and space plan); or a dynamic and adaptable system intended to accommodate change. It has lives as well as a death - an ending that can also be designed in advance.” -Architecture Timed Designing with time in mind_Architectural Design Magazine Jan/Feb 2016
Okay, so, I’d rather consider architecture/landscape as a living creature like human beings, in this case, Kafr Bir’am is like a mother waiting for her children to come back, or a forgotten village waiting for changes and attention. We don’t know what will happen to Bir’am, what will be the government’s decision, what’s its future destiny. So again, why not think of a temporary landscape, (to see it as a transitional stage) that with temporary structure but well-designed, appropriately and probably be helpful to the future planning as well. We are not eager to give it a new definition, a new character, but a transitional stage, like a place which is waiting for the unknown future with patience. Pian piano, slow down and suspends the understanding of time and opens up a view to a calm and tranquil duration. On the other hand, if needed, to make it catalyst of future planning. Talking about value and time, I would like to cit another article of this magazine: The degree of slowness is directly proportional to he intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting. Indeed, historical buildings appear to process a memory of the past, whereas contemporary buildings, especially in the world of business, seem to be all about the moment of “now”. -Time, Speed and Memory_Architectural Design Magazine Jan/Feb 2016
“Architecture moves toward landscape and landscape moves toward architecture.” “Architects manipulate structure, or components of building, or materials in certain ways; landscape architects also manipulate materials, or surface, but in different ways… Architecture is very separated and more object-like, and landscape is continuous—you can just keep going forever.” -Landform Building: Architecture’s new terrain
To sum up, in this phase of work and mind-thinking, I am focusing on temporary landscape architecture, dealing with light materials, to add a new surface/layer to the existing fragments of historical architecture in Bir’am, and to suppose possible forms of this complex in the future.