Stephan Wimmer - Architecture Portfolio

STEPHAN WIMMER ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO 2009-2013 stephan.wimmer@gmx.at

UNIVERSITY

LUZIA PARK NIEDERNSILL BUILT August 2012 page 30

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SPRINGBAD

2009 / Bachelor Thesis / Outdoor swimming pools page 6

SPACE BLOCK RAIDING 2011 / Housing page 14

VERTICAL PUBLIC SPACE 2012 / Viewing Tower page 22

FILTER & LINK

URBAN CULTURAL LANDSCAPE BEIRUT 2013 / Master Thesis / Public Space page 46

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SPRINGBAD WIESING

-OUTDOOR SWIMMING POOLSBachelor Thesis 2009

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Concept The Architecture in this project is strongly dominated by the topography of the existing cultural landscape.

The difference in height between the levels varies from one to 27 meters and offers unconventional takeoff spots which are different from classic standardised diving towers. Some of these takeoff possibilities take you through a gap in the floor or some space in the middle of another bath into a deep pond on a lower level. This adds another way of being in a different environment within seconds compared to the slow gradient of change experienced through walking.

A wide range of pools in different sizes, temperatures and orientation are to be discovered by the users. From small whirl-pools and deep ponds for diving to more shallow ones for swimming.

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SPACE BLOCK RAIDING -HOUSING2011

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Design process: 1. The typical „Hakenhof“ house in Raiding: entrance through the big gate along the street. Long and narrow site that is divided from the neighbour by a wall and all units are oriented towards the courtyard.

2. Changing the orientation of the part further away from the street towards the landscape.

3. Creating a gradient by cutting out voids while the outside wall gets less affected.

4. Dissolving the classical wall by moving its segments which results in a communication membrane between hotel guests and locals. While it appears to be closed from the distance it opens up more and more the closer you get.

5. The cut out parts are turned into furniture, used by the public and hotel guests 6. The multifunctional hall for workshops and conferences is oriented towards the center of the town.

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Concept

Housing project for tourists in a small village called Raiding. Inspired by density, Japanese architecture and architecture in landscape.

Increased density through repetition of similar elements with different arrangements results in various qualities of living. Another type of density is created through the multi-use of the public space and the multi-functional hall by tourists and the locals of Raiding. The way of using the housing units should be discovered by the users.

The user profits from these undefined spaces. It‘s not just about the relation between user and space, but also between the users within the space where the 3-dimensional distribution of inhabitants plays an important role. Turning some of the spaces into 2-story units, accessible by outside staircases with shared spaces in between enables communication between the guests without forcing it. The new public space and the multi-functional hall allows more contact between the guests and locals.

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VERTICAL PUBLIC SPACE STOCKERAU -VIEWING TOWER2012

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AUSSICHT KONSTRUKTION

MULTI FUNKTIONELL ERSCHLIESSUNG

DICHTE

PUBLIC SPACE UNDEFINIERT ENTSCHLEUNIGUNG

AUSSICHT

PUBLIC SPACE DICHTE

KONSTRUKTION

ERSCHLIESSUNG

Concept

Vertical public space for Stockerau The existing viewing tower was deconstructed after a couple of suicides. Can a tower really be blamed for these suicides or is it just the only spot in this city that is high enough to jump off, if you want to quit your life early?

This problem cannot be solved by higher handrails. (as proposed by the officials in the brief ) That’s why this project is taking another direction by providing vertical space for the public instead of just thinking about the view.

The aim again is not just the relationship between the individual and space, but also between the humans within the space. On the first impression it seems to be without any function, though it’s full of possibilities to be discovered. The organisation of space like in a landscape where user is the one that defines the functions. A Gradient from bottom to top, from a defined stairway towards undefined vertical public space.

Why build a tower that only got a view on offer?

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DEFINIERT

KONSTRUKTION

MONO FUNKTIONELL

ERSCHLIESSUNG

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Rohrstuck durch ineinander stecken und verkleben. Sicherung durch Montagesplint

Vergrößerung der Auflagefläche durch aufgeschweißtes Kupplungselement. Sicherung durch Schraube

Bündelung / Auffächerung

Verbindung der Rohre längs durch verkleben mit Profilen

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LUZIAPARK NIEDERNSILL with Bernhard Stubenbรถck built: August 2012

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25m

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Concept: Wooden structures which give its users an undefined new environment that can be freely discovered and actively used, were set up in the existing swimming lake. The construction indicates multiple ways of being used instead of offering a specific function.

The park reaches out of the water and can only be reached by swimming. Thirty-fife wooden piles with lengths between one and four meters above the water surface carry seven platforms in various sizes and shapes. The island-like platforms can be used for relaxing, climbing, watching others, jumping off and a lot more. A couple of platforms are connected by two slacklines and a balance bar in different heights and lengths and should animate the users to further activities. Additional six hammocks create a relax-zone and are being misused in interesting ways.

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FILTER & LINK URBAN CULTURAL LANDSCAPE BEIRUT Master Thesis 2013

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PROBLEMS SHORT VERSION The Paris of the Middle East Lebanon gained independence from France in 1943.

The 1960s were the glory years with just about everything you can imagine. A video produced in this time shows “Sahet Al Burj” (Marty‘s Square, on the bottom left picture) as a lively, public space including the „souks“ ( ...“a vibrant and cosmopolitan market section of the former downtown area that had been shared by members of all faiths and sects before the war“1). In the „Paris of the Middle East“ how they called Beirut, there was as much traffic as on any other international airport, women wore bikinis while riding their water-skis behind a boat, there was public green spaces and there was no skyline full of ugly high-rises.

Beirut changed a lot after 1975 when the 16 year civil war began. Public spaces were destroyed and turned into battlefields.

During the 16 years of civil war in Beirut the Green Line (referring to the nature taking over in this war-zone of destroyed, abandoned buildings and empty streets) emerged as a demarcation line along the main North-South road axis dividing the city into West- (Muslim) and East-Beirut (Christian) with each side under the control of its militias. „The Lebanese commonly refer to the civil war as Al-Hawadeth, an Arabic phrase suggesting not so much a war `between each other` but a war of others on Lebanese soil.“1 „The Arabic name for this front line is: Khutout at tammas ,which means, more accurately in plural `confrontation lines`.“ Moystad (1998: 421) „Bus lines stopped at the demarcation line; roads were closed and only a few gates were kept open.“2 1,2, Esther Charlesworth - Architects Without Frontiers (2009)

The new City Centre: Beirut or Dubai? „While the Green Line separated the many groups in conflict, many Beirutis have argued that the new `red line` drawn around Solidere‘s project boundary is an even sharper line between those who have, and those who do not. Other architectural and political commentators have suggested that Beirut is now, in fact, far more polarized than it was just after the war in 1991.“1 The rebuilt city center as some kind of a protected „glamour zone“ with its large scale commercial and residential projects. Resulting in an island-like city within the existing city to attract the SUV-driving Lebanese and foreign upper class. -`NeoColonialism`Another interesting phenomenon is the well designed, almost empty plazas in the city centre and at the yacht harbour. These are privately owned ... and boasting signs that prohibit everything that usually defines a public space. „Nevertheless the Solidere Project only affects about 1.8 square kilometers, approximately one-tenth of the destroyed city area, while little attention has been paid to the wider metropolitan region in formulating planning strategies for the post-war city of Beirut.“ 1,2 Esther Charlesworth - Architects Without Frontiers (2009)

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Public Space or the lack of it Walking through different areas looking for differences and similarities. The Corniche (image on the right) seems to be the best working public space in Beirut while in other areas it seems that public life only exists in leftover spaces that are not accessible by car. The majority of public spaces like sidewalks are claimed by parking cars.

Markets are spatially, socially and culturally way more complex than just buying and selling items.

For me bargaining and getting into conversations with vendors and customers is as important as purchasing the product itself.

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PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION or the lack of it

Beirut had a 12 km long Tram system from1908 to 1965. „As automobiles became more widely adopted, tram tracks were removed to give way for more cars until the tram was fully decommissioned in September 1968.“ Wikipedia.org, Beirut Tramway

In 2013 the city is dominated by private cars stuck in traffic jams. The traffic of a world city squeezed through the alleys of a village. Walking is something for the `poor` so most don`t even think about the traffic itself as long as they are sitting in a fancy air-conditioned car while handling their business on the mobile phone.

Private shared taxis are handling the semi-public transportation. This so -called `service` at a fixed price (around 1 $) picks up people who are going into the same directions, constantly dropping and picking up new customers on a flexible route. A funny way of getting squeezed in between strangers.

The fictional metro map proposed by David Hury and Hassan Choubassi is a nice example how public transportation could work in Beirut.

In the past building new roads never solved traffic problems, but the pictures on the right show current plans of houses being taken down to pave the way for new roads.

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Source: beirutreport.com/

Source: beirutreport.com/

Concept: The proposed project on the following pages is seen as one part of a bigger process of recreating a cultural and infrastructural backbone and identity for Beirut. It needs different types and scales of interventions, spread out through the existing urban fabric connected by a public transportation system.

Refering to Esther Charlesworths „city as a spine“ instead of „city as a heart“ like in the Solidere project.

Combining public functions over time, in a sense of user oriented efficiency that results in additional public space. A market that goes beyond purchasing items, which is filtered to a minimum functional defined area leaves space for sports facilities and other cultural occasions after returning its share of the blur space at its peak hours.

Proposing the first subway station in Beirut without even having a subway system means there is a preuse of this space by other functions.

A lot of facilities are built for the one time maximum requirement of space. (Especially Stadiums for the Olympics). This projects aims at creating a flexible space, which will serve not just within those few peak times, but can as well be used in some way the rest of the times. A functional „grey zone“ for Beirutis.

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MARKET

EAT

NIGHTLIF PARK NIGHTLIFE

SPORTS

MICRO BUSINESS THEATHER CINEMA SUBWAY

SPACE

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Stacking: Conventional stacking vs. shared space

NOON

Conventional stacking of functions in a mixed use project results in a lot of space defined for one specific function throughout time. Every Function has its own infrastructure.

VS. LOST SPACE

CONVENTIONAL STACKING

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MIDNIGHT

TIME

6PM

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SPACE

SCHOOLYARD

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EAT MARKET NIGHTLIFE

NIGHTLIFE INFRASTRUCTURE SPORTS PARK

SCHOOLYARD

MUSIC EAT MICRO BUSINESS CINEMA THEATHER

SPACE

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Shared Space: conventional stacking vs. shared space Combining functions throughout time by reducing the functions to the minimum space required to be specialized. On demand parts of the shared space are being occupied. Building the same volume as in conventional stacking with this kind of SHARED SPACE organisation results in additional space, -public spaceTowards an user oriented efficiency!

The market is shrinking after 2 pm leaving space for playing basketball and a big stair/ramp to sit on and watch movies at night. Horizontally continuous areas are specialized, monofunctional ones. The Rest of the required space is taken from the grey shared/public space on demand.

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Cave vs. Nest

by Sou Fujimoto

“A ‚nest‘ is a place for people that is very well prepared, everything is assembled and very functional, meanwhile the ‚cave‘ is just a raw space, which people need to explore and find their own comfort within. This is a situation where people can use space creatively. I prefer something like the cave-like-unintentional space. Something that is in between nature and artifact - formless form.“ Source: Designboom Interview with Sou Fujimoto 2008

Sou Fujimoto`s way of categorizing space in a functional way is a main inspiration not just for this project. The user profits from undefined space that can be defined by the user itself depending on demands into some improvised space.

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Filter & Link a process

The basic idea is to filter functions and link them. Specific functions like a market, eating, nightlife, sports, a cinema and micro business can be filtered/deconstructed to a minimum and then reconnected with a link. In this particular case the link is a functional, `cave` like blur space connecting the minimized `nest` like functions. It acts as a field, allowing different ways of claiming the space on demand throughout the peak times and withdraw it again to other functions or as public space after demand.

By reducing the specialized space to the minimum, different functions can use the same shared space at different times which results in a higher density/efficiency with more available space at the same time. This efficiency could lead to a smaller volume of a building or in my case, building the same volume and giving the additional space that is being created through more density in other areas, to the public as public space. A user-oriented efficiency.

There are links in different scales and links within the link. On an urban scale two parts of the city are linked together, in the project itself there are main links and others that appear and disappear when functions expand and shrink offering shortcuts.

Another example of a filter & link reference comes from neuroscience. Scientists found out that people with brain damage on the left side of the brain (responsible for language, mathematical computations, logic ...) create new links to areas on the right side of the brain because the original area is not capable of fulfilling the tasks anymore. This results in a much higher memory for processes. In one study they found out that a mental arithmetic genius is using his long-term memory as a buffer for calculations instead of using the short-term memory which results in a much higher performance because this area has a much bigger memory available. Transfering this back to architecture this means that there are areas that could process tasks of other areas even better than the one responsible for it - if we find a way of linking.

The Architect as a DJ The Dj and producer Parov Stelar talks about a happy accident of an old Bilie Holiday Vinyl getting stuck, repeating the same section over and over again and he really liked the loop which led him to something independent: Electro-Swing, old sounds combined with synthie-beats, a mix of House, Electro, Jazz and Downbeat. The Album is called „The Art of Sampling“. Blurring genre boundaries and taking good samples of architecture (not just visually, but also forms of organisation) and combining them with a smart link to bring all the different parts together to one piece without being a collage (a word that frightens some architects).

Bruce Lee got famous for combining different martial arts styles to one thing, filtering the different styles and linking the right part of different genres together.

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Work in-progress model before adding the roof.

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Construction Site: The elements are prefabricated with the technology taken from big steel vessels and airplanes. A double curved surface resulting from a patchwork of single curved steel panels held in place by steel ribs.

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Siteplan right side, map source: AUB

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Section 2

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The same structure is left over as some kind of an undefined furniture after the market operation hours leaving space for some public life. The stairs and concrete blocs are heated via thermal activation during the winter months when the temperature drops too low.

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The structure on the lower level consists of plywood boxes in different scales and heights for presenting and storing items during the market hours. The floor is cooled by water pipes in the concrete during the summer months.

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Physical Model: Scale: 1:200

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