Théo faucheux - The Mute Concert

The mute concert

Deep in the forest, in a fall afternoon, I took the time to visit a building as I had never visited before. It was a gray wooden colossus, sealed to the ground by a concrete base, with the proud look, slender, with cambered bust, which build on top of the Nagy Kopasz mount. From a distance, to the closer, from the outside to the inside, from the ground floor to the top, I surveyed the tower, discovering the quality of an architectural achievement as innocuous as unexpected, that which combines an ... observatory a refuge, a hut and a boat.

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Walk

I paced a path that followed the outline of a large hay field. Inclined at a slight slope, it led directly to the sweet side of the hill, covered with a dense forest which green colors of summer began to turn to those glowing autumn.

Following this path for several minutes that arrived at the foot of the first hill, the road turned left near the forest . The way crept between the trees, sometimes narrow and winding, sometimes wide and straight. Crossing many walkers on the way, I was curious to see where everyone was heading.

Arrival

I felt that something was not far. The path was splitting since the slope was flattened, as I was on a plateau at the top, but never found the cross of wood or the kern stone that symbolizes it.

And there, at the bend of a path from left, I saw a giant among trees silhouette.

Gradually, step by step, between the leaves of the trees, I finally found the sense the aim of my promenade...

Size

A gray monolith itself up in front of me. It was approximately one quarter kilometer from the top and three lying men wide and even in depth.

The trees around it seemed to imitate, stretching full length to match its size, unable to compete with this giant.

Form

Material

I turned around it like the back of animals, assessing my subject from any angle. Its shape was not trivial, gray like rock, the monolith was dug at the base, forming a cavity which could have been used as a shelter on rainy days. Going up by looking the slightly curved lines that formed angles, the colossus was pierced all over his lap with a thick dark slit that detached the top of the pebble and became a hat maintained at four corners. Their faces are not straight but slightly curved as if the wind had worn his breath but what would not assign, proud of their forms, bearing good omens, like the sails of the boats inflated by the wind that carries the ship on oceans.

It is a wooden tower that water and the weather had tarnished in a chestnut brown. By far the facade quivered as I moved and changed my angle of view. By close, the opaque skin is dematerialized in hundreds horizontale spaced stripes through witch I perceived some blurred figure moving inside. The hollow base of concrete that sat the wooden structure is not very sophisticated but otherwise raw, marks the apparent formwork. On the ground, the earth sparse grass give way to a rough slate paving barely bigger than a hand.

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This coating extends slightly outside the base to serve as a bearing for the shelter which formed this cavity. In the center, leaning against the back wall, two men was sitting on a bench. They talked in a low voice, as if they did not want to disturb the tranquility of the moment. Behind them, the wall was a stalled letting the light coming from the top floor down along the wall to the ground. I get around the wall and the men sat down by the right and discovered a wooden staircase in a simple board that seemed recessed at the ends in the concrete walls. Later, walking around by the left I would discover that the boards were actually supported by thin steel strips, bolted into the walls and the wooden board.

Construction

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As I climbed the stairs to the first floor, I watched more closely inside the structure. It is a complex structure made of an ingenious combination of an inclined wooden element, connected together by thick brushed metal parts.

For certain inclined beam, thick bolts were crimped steel blades piercing the timber in his heart, other vertical came be embedded between two steel plates.

These steel elements are joined at their base by three forming a single designed piece recalling the articulation of a hand. The beams did not exceed more than two meters long which multiplied the connections between them.

There was a lot of honesty in this construction, the apparent structure, without artifice, showing the connections, playing with diagonals, bolts, wood pierced and concrete formwork.

I had the feeling to live in the structure, like in an old wooden ship, where we hear the structure creak and crack under pressure of water and wind..

Space

Ascending the levels, while the first floor, or the base roof, was made of concrete, the top floor was a wooden floor. It did not cover the totality of the bearing but only half, creating a balcony overlooking the lower floor.

Under this, some long beams exceeded and crossing over the void to reach the outer structure which made a belt connecting the four pillars at the corners of the tower. Some of these beams through taking oblique axes, inspiring a certain complexity in the space, by joining by three and forming triangles. The structure thereby shown created a very graphic space. Climbing to the next floor, I met on the stairs a couple, the narrowness forced us to touch. As the vertical circulation stood against the rear faรงade of the tower, we could see the trees through the siding, sometimes even a few leaf slipped through. Starting to get high and seeing the tops of some trees.

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The second floor have a full basement.

I was at about half the height of the tower and from what I saw outside and domed facade, it should be the floor with the largest area. A simple bench against the stairwell constituted the only furniture. I sat in front, even to the ground, looking up and discovering the double height of crossing numerous oblique beam.

This was the heart of a hut. I imagined the different uses of this space: a yoga class, an evening gathering where we tell stories or an exhibition area ...

I would liked to soft one hammock between two beams or simply climb on one of this and lie myself down.

Light

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At that moment the sun until then veiled, appears through the clouds, piercing its rays the bristled facades of the tower. It was unexpected.

Passing through the sunshield skin, the light became shadows, of a hypnotizing geometric lining, it upholster walls and floors. The space was completely dematerialized by the straight and oblique shadows which had streak the beams of the structure to the ground floor.

Denouement

The floors are alternate so, a half bearing balcony followed by a second full, double height. Ultimately, this tour is not only for observing the horizon. At the top is certainly a magnificent panorama before us but the interest of this project lies in the ascent, from the village to the top of the hill, step by step, to a full discovery.

We created a report with the building that itself offers us a different vision of the environment. The first impression of a stone monolith that quickly turns into a sail inflated by the wind. The second impression when we returned, found this cavity with concrete, a kind of cave that leads us to climb the bridge of a wooden ship hull to get to a lookout, a balcony on the campaign.

This relationship between man, object and space is summarized in this steel plate nailed to the concrete base which indicated dates, heights and names:

CSERGEZÁN KILÁTÓ 559 m

a kilátótorony magassága 23,50 m ÉPÍTTETTE: PILISI PARKERDÖ RT BUDAKESZI ERDÉSZETE

AZ F.V.M ERDÉSZETI FÖOSZRALYA TÁMOGATÁSÁVAL 1821 TERVEZTE: BASA PÉTER ÉPITÉSZ (Architect)

CZÉR PÉTER SZOBRÁSZ (Sculptor)

DR. JORDÁN LÁSZLÓ STATIKUS (Static Engineer) ÉPÍTETTE: KÁMÁN KFT ORSFA KFT.

2005

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Everything became clearer now. This building harmony was the concord of three knowledges. The shape had me seemed carved from a block, reflected and shaped by hand, like a sculpture.

Then the sculpture became structure formed element of concrete, wood and steel, ingeniously assembled, honestly, without artifice. Finally I came to live in the structure, browse through the areas pierced of light and shadow, until the summit and enjoyed the use and function of such a building. All the quality of this realization is based on the perfect concert of the three fundamental dimensions of architecture that are the shape, the structure and the space.

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