The Ludwig Wittgenstein Institute

tz+ah tina zheng andrew huang

this book is dedicated to effie

GRADUATION STUDIO 2014 DESIGN BOOK Tina Zheng 308 207 440 Andrew Huang 308 219 473

CONTENTS Introduction Project Outline Conceptual Framework Inversion Precedent Studies Context And Site Analysis Of Existing House Program Technological Strategy Phase 1 Phase 2 Afterword Notes References

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INTRODUCTION Haus Wittgenstein, The Ludwig Wittgenstein Institute was a project unlike all others throughout our degree. It required an engagement with both architecture and philosophy, which was an arduous task and at times, impossibly frustrating.

However what resulted was something we are proud of, exhibiting the lessons we had amassed throughout the semester.

Beyond a functional scheme that aimed to consider its context, Haus Wittgenstein was the result of a semester questioning the nature of philosophy, architecture and that which resided in-between. It is our hope that the catalogue of our work in this book tells that story.

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view from within existing house 1

PROJECT OUTLINE At the site of the house designed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, the scheme proposed the Ludwig Wittgenstein institute. It would be a repository for the texts and archives of Wittgenstein’s work and also a place for the study and dissemination of these works.

Of Wittgenstein’s philosophical works, we were drawn to his two published texts; the 1921 “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” (Logical Philosophical Treatise) and Philosophical Investigations which published in 1953. We saw the Tractatus as Wittgenstein’s solution to the questions of the world. Within its succinct propositions he had equated everything and all matters resolved. However the latter text presented more questions than answers. It asked its readers to personally evaluate everything within our surroundings, even the senses with which we used to engage with them.

What interested us was the shift in thinking in this one man’s world view. What was it that caused someone so sure of what philosophy was, to then question himself and the nature of philosophy again? Some readings would suggest it was the act of designing something of the built environment. More importantly, what was the potential of the Ludwig Wittgenstein institute to change its user’s world view? The combination of Haus Wittgenstein and the program within it was envisaged to enhance this transformative agency on its users, that same transformation that the texts alone provided to us as individuals throughout this semester.

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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK “In order to know an object, I must know not its external but all its internal qualities.” 2 This proposition served as the starting point for our strategy in approaching the modification of the house. to know an object What was it to know an object? Our interpretations were informed by the contrasting ideological tones of Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations. If there was the possibility to “know” in an absolute sense, then that would be what the Tractatus offered. Conversely, Philosophical Investigations convinced us that there was no such possibility of an absolute comprehension of any object. All we could do was to build on the words presented before us and continue in this conversation around understanding.

The study of philosophy itself we saw as a fluctuation between these two states. At times, that moment of clarity led us to believe we understood perfectly those words on the page and how it all fit in the puzzle of the world. But these moments were brief, and interspersed between were the seas of the unknown, where questioning, conversing and reflecting were the only ways to stay buoyant. its external but all its internal qualities This section spoke of the importance of context in both the architectural and philosophical sense. External and internal are terms defined by a point of reference.

As a result, we deduced that it was not possible to know only the internal or the external qualities. To articulate the internal, its reference to the world, the external had to be considered.

Taking Haus Wittgenstein as that object, we understood the need to approach our interventions to its internal qualities from a contextual and “external” point of entry.

The physical, historical and cultural context became foundations of our design approach.

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existing house

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INVERSION The term inversion carries a multiplicity of interpretations. In linguistics it is the variety of constructions through which sentences can change their meaning. Statements can become questions, and vice versa.

In this context, the term inversion took place in defining our interpretation of the proposition. There was the point of reference, around which understanding formed based on order and context. Changes in this order affected the experience significantly and we saw that statement to be true in the experience of Haus Wittgenstein.

In geology, inversion describes the uplift of sedimentary formations. The acts of extruding, folding, and thrusting that characterised these natural events defined the tectonic palette through which we modified the house.

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PRECEDENT STUDIES A focus on the house in its context led us to explore the importance of procession in studies of architectural precedents.

The Salk Institute by Kahn is immediately equated with the famous view looking down the central courtyard and over the La Jolla coast. However, we were interested in all the moments before and after that. Leading towards the courtyard, Kahn choreographed a series of conceals and partial reveals along pathways that led the visitor to experience that vista at that precise location and moment as intended.

Similarly, the traditional Japanese Teahouse constructed a journey through its surrounding gardens before arriving at the ceremonial teahouse. The entry threshold and contrasting blank geometric spaces within were all parts within a procession that began before one reached the entry of the structure.

In the historical context, we found that the Viennese Coee House was an institution important in the spreading and sharing of ideas in early 20th Century Vienna. A number of these ideas relating to philosophy, science and art we still see prevalent to this day. The revitalised program of the coee house as well as the values it embodied were elements we were keen to include within our scheme.

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the salk institute 3

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the japanese teahouse 4

the viennese coee house 5

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programmatic investigations

CONTEXT AND SITE Located in the residential district of Landstraße, Haus Wittgenstein is displaced from the cultural civic centre of Ringstraße and Innere Stadt. As a result, we saw the role it played twofold. Firstly, it was integrated within the mesh of community that included the surrounding residences, schools and public spaces. Secondly, it was a beacon that through its importance as a philosophical locus became a place of pilgrimage.

Visitors would arrive both from a street away or a continent away to absorb and spread opinions and ideas.

The immediate site gave a sense of being inhospitable to pedestrians. In addition to the adjacent office tower that dwarfed the house, the surrounding roads were predominantly catered to vehicular access. This, in addition to the house’s plinth walls formed narrow footpaths barely wide enough for two-way travel. This neglect of the pedestrian experience was visible in the graffiti that adorned the plinth walls.

To make Haus Wittgenstein approachable, we saw the potential of a pedestrian link next to the tower becoming the basis of dialogue between the house and its context.

Consideration of surrounding traffic patterns and processions towards the house informed the extension of this pedestrian link to wrap around Parkgasse and Geusaugasse, forming a prominent corner from which the formal axis of entry would begin into Haus Wittgenstein.

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existing site conditions

existing parkgasse site section

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proposed site conditions

proposed parkgasse site section

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proposed site plan

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ge us au ga ss e

park gass e

existing

inversion

fold

Examining the interior elements of the house, the ground floor were seen as the most architecturally considered. As a result, they were preserved whilst the remainder of the house were modified to meet requirements.

Through notions of inversion, the room voids of the ground floor were extruded down into the street/basement level to form blocks containing library program.

Where the street level were the solid interpretation of the rooms, the upper floor would represent the ‘void’ aspect of these rooms, projected with hob walls to not restrict movement, but suggest it. The high plinth walls are folded down to begin inviting the public in.

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ge us au ga ss e

park gass e

projection

gateway

procession

To accommodate the public program, abstractions of the room proportions were thrust into the plinth. These forms would then converse both with the house and the surrounding site.

Pronouncing the entry into Haus Wittgenstein, the coee house oriented towards the prominent corner. The sense of arrival and destination were represented by a raised plaza, on which amphitheatre seating along the same axis create a dialogue with the house.

Procession throughout the house was curated in such a way that movement considered the transitions between old and new as well as between the various interpretations of the original proposition.

design process

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public program axonometric

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view from parkgasse boulevard

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ANALYSIS OF EXISTING HOUSE We approached the house as an object to be considered within its context and also a sum of various different elements.

Informed by the contrasting interpretations of ‘observation’ between Wittgenstein’s two major works, initial investigations looked at the house with two different lenses. Firstly, the ‘empirical’ analysis considered the apparent facts of the house. Its geometry, proportion, and spatiality were modelled and abstracted. Secondly, the ‘experiential’ analysis looked into how interactions between people and the house occurred.

This analysis of the house revealed a number of priorities to carry into the proposed scheme. The retention of the house’s external form was vital. Its potential to become an icon representing Wittgenstein and his philosophy was in part due to the house’s austere contrast from the rest of Vienna.

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material and form study mdoel

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existing house 6

procession through existing house

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view lines throughout existing house

room proportion study model

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PROGRAM Research showed that there already existed a number of Wittgenstein archives and libraries around the world, whilst the city of Vienna already provided a variety of instructions for the study of philosophy.

These institutions however, accommodated mostly to those invested in the study of Wittgenstein and philosophy. We saw Haus Wittgenstein as a place that would engage a greater spectrum of society with Wittgenstein’s philosophy. It was possible that people would relate to these new ideas, and find them applicable to their own views of the world much like our personal experience this semester.

To achieve this, we considered the various mediums through which we had explored Wittgenstein’s work. There were the primary sources of written texts, and these would be represented by library and archive spaces. Contextualising these texts were the other mediums including speech and objects, represented by an auditorium and exhibition spaces.

As a result, this motion of drawing in the public into our scheme required an approach that involved not only alteration within the site boundaries but also the surrounding site.

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program massing model

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view from within library

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tractatus ground oor exhibitions

TRACTATUS LOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS 2.141.

The picture is a fact.

TRACTATUS LOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS 3.328.

If a sign is not necessary then it is meaningless. That is the meaning of Occam’s razor. (If everything in the symbolism works as though a sign had meaning, then it has meaning.)

TRACTATUS LOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS 4.121.

Propositions cannot represent the logical form: this mirrors itself in the propositions. That which mirrors itself in language, language cannot represent. That which expresses itself in language, we cannot express by language. The propositions show the logical form of reality. They exhibit it.

TRACTATUS LOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS 7.

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

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philosophical investigations first floor exhibitions

PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS 91.

One can mistrust one’s own senses, but not one’s own belief.

PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS 107.

The more narrowly we examine actual language, the sharper becomes the conflict between it and our requirement. (For the crystalline purity of logic was, of course, not a result of investigation: it was a requirement.) The conflict becomes intolerable; the requirement is now in danger of becoming empty.—We have got on to slippery ice where there is no friction and so in a certain sense the conditions are ideal, but also, just because of that, we are unable to walk. We want to walk: so we need friction. Back to the rough ground!

PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS 118.

I may, then, have seen the duck-rabbit simply as a picture-rabbit from the first. That is to say, if asked “What’s that?” or “What do you see here?” I should have replied: “A picture-rabbit”. If I had further been asked what that was, I should have explained by pointing to all sorts of pictures of rabbits, should perhaps have pointed to real rabbits, talked about their habits, or given an imitation of them.

I should simply have described my perception. — Nevertheless someone else could have said of me: “He is seeing the figure as a picture-rabbit.”

PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS 327.

If a lion could talk, we wouldn’t be able to understand it.

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first floor exhibitions

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TECHNOLOGICAL STRATEGY The tectonic expression of the scheme aimed to emphasise the existing materiality of the house through contrasts. Whilst the original house was rendered in a pristine uniform white concrete render, the now exposed faces of the basement level required a starkly diering expression.

Basalt was elected due to its visual contrast as well as the highly irregular igneous surface. Relating back to the geological connotations of inversion, the basalt would act as a plinth that served to elevate and highlight the house. Similarly, the copper clad external public programs are a statement against the uniform facades of both the original house and the surrounding Viennese context. Its aging, rusting and thereby dynamic appearance would become a point of interest to those passing by on surrounding boulevards.

Structural strategies attempted to inject a sense of pragmatism into the scheme.

Whilst the basalt appeared as the solid renditions of the ground oor voids through inversion, they would be assembled as tiles on a reinforced concrete structure. In contrast, the public programs applied a contemporary approach to the assembly of a structure. Steel framing anchored on concrete slabs and composite concrete rooďŹ ng allowed for rooftop gardens and an appropriate response to the copper panel cladding desired.

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basalt material study 7

copper

concrete

basalt

material palette

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copper / corten material study 8

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basalt material study 9

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carefully saw cut and remove first floor internal walls and floor finishes. make good to adjacent surrounds carefully saw cut and remove second floor internal walls and floor slab. make good to adjacent surrounds existing rendered concrete wall retained new rendered concrete hob walls. paint finish to match existing new external floor finishes to first floor slab as per floor plans waterproof membrane to existing floor. ensure drainage to existing stormwater system suspended plasterboard ceiling with shadowline trim ceiling insulation to meet thermal requirements retain existing ground floor walls and floor finishes. if damaged during construction make good to original condition retain existing ground floor slab. support existing house with temporary steel supports. carefully remove basement walls and floor finishes new reinforced concrete walls to structural engineer’s detail steel stud frame around timber veneer joinery bookshelves basalt tile wall cladding fixed to proprietary framing system existing concrete slab scabbled back to take new basalt tile floor finish new concrete block retaining wall to structural engineer’s detail

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existing aluminium framed doors and windows to be protected and retained

steel framed walkway with fibre cement soffit and fascia lining fixed to tophats walkway paving as per floor plan waterproof membrane to top of concrete slab composite concrete slab with upturn to take roof top garden ceiling insulation to meet thermal requirements top soil on gravel and sand frameless glazed balustrade oxidised copper panels cassette fixed to steel outrigger to structural engineer’s detail suspended plasterboard ceiling with shadowline trim aluminium framed fixed glazing with copper mesh screen steel stud wall framed with oxidised copper cladding plasterboard wall lining to tophats new concrete slab to structural engineer’s detail

construction section model

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PHASE 1

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existing room proportions

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interpreted design grid

new proportional forms

major axis

analytical diagrams

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kundmanngasse tall streetfront buildings creates enclosed atmosphere along street

entry into wittgenstein haus start of procession into haus wittgenstein through existing lightwell and basement gallery and exhibition space space available to educational institutes in the community to encourage a place of gathering and learning coffee house revitalise coffee house culture once prominent in vienna to promote an environment for learning and teaching auditorium elevation to be suggestive of the qualities of haus wittgenstein parkgasse pedestrian only access to parkgasse extended around to gesaugasse to create enhanced connectivity with surroundings

site analysis

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diagrammatic sectional perspective

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program axonometric

conceptual sketches

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PHASE 2

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street level plan

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ground level plan

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ďŹ rst level plan

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AFTERWORD The idea of philosophy as an activity resonated with us in light of the experiences of this semester. As we ourselves felt a better understanding of Wittgenstein’s ideas through the development of this scheme, so too did we envision that the proposed scheme provide the same clarity to its occupants. Beyond reading texts, the immersion of oneself in the multiple mediums of communicating ideas left a greater impression on how applicable those ideas were to architectural practice and a consideration of the built environment. These thoughts we harboured were articulated best by Wittgenstein himself in the Tractatus:

“The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thoughts.

Philosophy is not a theory but an activity.

A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations.

The result of philosophy is not a number of “philosophical propositions”, but to make propositions clear.

Philosophy should make propositions clear and delimit sharply the thoughts which otherwise are, as it were, opaque and blurred.” 10

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NOTES 1

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Leitner, B (2000). The Wittgenstein House. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p 68.

Wittgenstein, L (1961). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. New York: Rutledge. p 6.

Perez, A. (2010). AD Classics: Salk Institute / Louis Kahn. http://www.archdaily. com/61288/ad-classics-salk-institute-louis-kahn/.

Serrano, A. (2009). Japanese Tea House. http://abreathoutofacoma.deviantart. com/art/Japanese-Tea-House-20586230.

Kaeefabrik. http://viennaeatworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/kaeefabrik/.

Image taken by Anna Scheermann.

Emerson, S. (2010). Eternal Stones. https://500px.com/photo/11501675/eternalstones-by-stephen-emerson.

Hackney Marshes Centre / Stanton Williams. http://www.archdaily.com/430674/ hackney-marshes-centre-stanton-williams/.

The House Cast in Liquid Stone / SPASM Design Architects. http://www.archdaily. com/419578/the-house-cast-in-liquid-stone-spasm-design-architects/.

Wittgenstein, L (1961). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. New York: Rutledge. p 29.

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Cacciari, M. (2013). The Oikos of Wittgenstein. http://thecharnelhouse.org/2013/11/22/ the-oikos-of-wittgenstein/.

Cecil, W. (2014). Wittgenstein His Life and Philosophy. YouTube. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=TNaBRR-XeAs. Heaton, J & Groves, J (2009). Introducing Wittgenstein: A Graphic Guide. London: Icon Books Ltd. Indiana, G. (2008). Vienna III, Kundmanngasse 19. In: Indiana, G Utopia’s Debris: Selected Essays. Philadelphia: Basic Books.

Leitner, B (2000). The Wittgenstein House. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Loos, A (1970). Ornament and Crime. Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture.. Cambridge: MIT Press. p 19-24.

Pook, D.O (Winter 1994). Working on Oneself: Wittgenstein’s Architecture, Ethics and Aesthetics. Wittgenstein and Art. 2 (1), p 48-82.

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Ventzislavov, R. (2012). Fragments in Libeskind and Wittgenstein. http://www. contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=652.

Von Wright, G. (1959). Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir. Malcolm, N. Oxford University Press. 12s. 6d. Wiley Online Library.

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Wittgenstein, L (1980). Culture and Value. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher.

Wittgenstein, L (2009). Philosophical Investigations. 4th ed. United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing.

Wittgenstein, L (1961). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. New York: Rutledge

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