Constructed Memories by Kim Võ

MAXXI STUDIO: the Home, the Monument, the Museum

CONSTRUCTED MEMORIES

Hongchang Duan

754775

Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo - MAXXI

Constructed Memories

Edifici dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;abitazione nella SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt, IBA 84

MAXXI Studio: The Home, The Monument, The Museum

Prologue

Wayfinding Plans

2 Prologue 3 Interview

with Oskar Rosa

4 Materials 5

Major Project

Critics Review

by Manning McBride

7 Index 8 Notes 9

Knowledge Bank

Architectural Exhibition has always been a great interest of mine, as the building occupies the exhibition space, there are endless possibilities of how that space could be curated and exhibited, and the impact of that exhibition could be more profound than the actual building itself. This project has further cemented this interest, and has led me to view architecture in a different lens.

Wayfinding Plan

16 17 55 15

Rest Room

13 1

Coat Check

10 1

Rest Room

Ground Floor 1. Reception. 2. Corridor Gallery 1. 3. Theatre 1. 4. Bar. 5. Corridor Gallery 2. 6 MAXXI Gallery 13. Gift Shop

First Floor 5. Corridor Gallery 2. 7. Corridor Gallery 3. 8. Gallery 4. 9. Temporary Exhibition 10. MAXXI Gallery

Interview

with Oskar Rosa

On Rossi Oskar: Do you think that you have moved out of Rossi’s shadow? How have you embraced him but also managed to move away from him?

12 1 11 1

Rest Room

Andy: I would say no, for the reason that his formal language is so strong and simple. I remember it was either Pipo or one of the other crit, who said he and Le Corbusier are some of the easiest architects to imitate in a formal sense, but that imitation is definitely extremely limited, especially on a conceptual level. I think for me it has been quite difficult to mediate between showing his formal aspect but at the same time not limiting that to simply copying his formal expressions, because of the simplicity of the language that has been extremely difficult. Oskar: no, why?

Second Floor 9. Temporary Exhibition. 11. Gallery 5. 12. Theatre 2.

Do you think Rossi is still relevant for contemporary discourse? If yes, why? If

Andy: I think theory wise, the idea of the collective memory and his monumentality...I do hope to see these in today's practice. I'm not sure how much there is, but I do hope to see these and of course personally if I have a chance to experiment with these in real life I will certainly try. That is just to see how that grows I guess. But I guess similar to your answer previously, his approach to architecture in general is a little bit, I wouldn’t say irrelevant but difficult to manage nowadays, given that it’s not one person’s job anymore, architecture in today's practice is definitely largely a team sport. And the way you work with clients is completely different to how you would back in his day.

On Exhibition

On the Project of Architecture

Oskar: What is the challenge of exhibiting architecture? What is exhibited and what does the exhibiting in your project? Is it that simple?

Oskar: Can you identify a moment of crisis in the development of your project or your thinking about your project - for example a particular problem that couldn’t be resolved, or the idea that took-over your project…? Is it an architectural problem that will continue to haunt your project even after its completion?

Andy: I think in my project there's this idea of the inside and the outside. Actually I'll answer the first question first. I think the challenge definitely is the content you choose to exhibit and how you choose to exhibit or materialize that content that’s the most difficult thing for me. For example in our multi residential project in that case which part of the multi residential project you distill out of it that you think reflects its best character or reflects its best concept. And having that materialized within MAXXI think that’s the most difficult thing for me. The exhibited in my project at the moment is that space within the multi residential project and the idea of the skin and the inside and outside within the context of the MAXXI.

Andy: I think it’s the relationship between the exhibited item, or in this case, let’s call it the artifact, with the MAXXI, was the most difficult thing for me to resolve. For example.. how you have moved the thing into MAXXI, how it lives within the MAXXI, how it interacts with the MAXXI, that was the most difficult thing for me to resolve. I was drawn into the MAXXI a bit too much. I tried way too hard to build a model to put it simply. Tried to hard to imitate its formal language in the exterior and in this case it was not really needed so I think I wasted a bit of time there.

Oskar: How would you describe an architecture that exists solely inside the museum? How is that architecture different to architecture that exists outside the museum?

Oskar: Has your project for an architecture exhibition changed your position or attitude to architecture more generally? If yes, how?

Andy: I was thinking about this question just now, definitely the programmatic aspect of architecture. The multi residential project, the purpose of that is to house people, but when you exhibit that in the context of the museum potentially it can serve the function of providing shelter to people but at the same time will have an extra layer to it, simply to be viewed, simply to be experienced for the purpose of experiencing it and for the purpose of seeing it almost as an object. But whether the scale of the object, how big it is, is obviously dependent on how you would exhibit it.

Andy: I think it definitely makes you view architecture from a different lens. We are born into this world of buildings so before I did architecture you take this for granted. You see a building you don’t really consider its spatiality, its character, its atmosphere, you simply go into it. I think in the context of viewing architecture as an object on exhibition that definitely changes the way I see it a little more. You see its composition, or you try to see its composition at least, you try to see it from different angles instead of simply going into it and experiencing it. Its exterior and its interior... you can consider these relationships quite differently

Material

from the MAXXI archive

Edifici d’abitazione nella Südliche Friedrichstadt, IBA 84

Material

from Aldo Rossi: the life and work of an architect

Major Project plans

10m

15m

20m

25m

Constructed Memories

35m

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

isometrics

Major Project plans

corridor gallery

Gallery 1

theatre 1

entrance hall

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

ground floor plan

10m

15m

20m

25m

30m

reception

r lle ga y3 gallery 2

corridor gallery 4

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

first floor plan

10m

15m

20m

25m

30m

gallery 5

theatre 2

temporary gallery

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

second floor plan

10m

15m

20m

25m

30m

Major Project Artefect

10m

14m

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

Artefect 1: Insterted Arrival

10m

14m

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

Artefect 2: Concealed Theatre

10m

14m

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

Artefect 3: the Verticality and Horizontality of Skins

10m

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

Artefect 4: The Spectre of Streetscape

14m

Major Project

Perspectives

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

Event 1: Prologue

10m

14m

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

Event 2: Second Entrance

10m

14m

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

Event 3: Memories of the skins

10m

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

Event 4: The Spectre of Streetscape

14m

10m

14m

Constructed Memories

Residential Complex in SĂźdliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin MAXXI, Rome

Event 5: the Ghosted Memory of Friedrichstadt Block 10

Critics Review

By Manning McBride

The Weight of Form There is a certain seriousness in the work of Aldo Rossi. Yes, his drawings (and to a certain extent, built works) contain a youthful character. But beneath, is a persistence to reinforce the discipline of architecture. This undertone is achieved with several techniques – the use of traditional forms, the rational expression of fenestration, a controlled use of colour and texture. But perhaps most poignant is the way in which his architecture meets the ground. In contrast to some of his contemporaries (towards the latter part of his career), his forms encounter their context with force. Their presence is felt not only in their iconography but in their sheer mass. In Hongchang Duan’s work ‘Constructed Memories’, the serious undertone of Rossi’s architecture is challenged by depriving its gravitational force. It is no surprise that bringing the work of Rossi to the Zaha Hadid designed MAXXI Museum would yield such a result. The MAXXI, despite its heavy concrete construction, attempts to escape its context through fluid forms and directional forces. Hadid suggests that every angle in the project is extracted from its context. While this may be true in plan, it is not the case in elevation, where the movement of the homogenous forms exhibit a reluctance to be grounded. The same applies for the interior where tendril like forms levitate and deviate as though they fluctuate between attracting and repelling the floors and walls. Duan’s work deploys the weighty Rossi forms as though they abide by these implied rules of the MAXXI. The denial of ground is most obvious in the entrance hall, where a timber structure appears to levitate above the museum floor. Its weight is felt not by the force at which it meets the ground but by the angst at which it does not. It appears as an obstacle, disrupting the fluidity of the MAXXI interior and emphasising its own presence in a desire to be grounded. The timber strips the Rossi form of its weighty material expression. It is as though Duan is testing the weight of these forms by denying their two greatest assets; connection to ground and materiality. A departure occurs in a threshold between two spaces. A cuboid is inserted in the apparent entry (or maybe, exit). Entry to the adjoining space is denied and instead, one must enter the intervention, a thing within a thing. A ramp is provided to elevate the subject from the museum floor into Duan’s intervention. Just in the way Hadid’s MAXXI Museum escapes Rome, Duan’s interventions escape the MAXXI. It is a subversion that at face value is inherently un-Rossian. But upon closer inspection, might reveal something of his architecture and its place within the exhibition.

Let us return to the precedent from which the work originated, Rossi’s residential complex in Südliche Friedrichstadt, Berlin, completed in 1981. The corner column, as intended by Rossi, features as an urban point of reference, and articulates the corner entry. But aside from its iconography, it has the effect of exhibiting force upon the ground, emphasising the weight of itself and the form it is upholding. Contrast this with Rossi’s 1976 lithography titled ‘L’Architettura Assassinata’. In this print, objects, monuments, and buildings are depicted lightly, as though they are dancing. Their movement suggests they are not forcefully rooted in context but transient, a catalogue of forms ready to be deployed in the appropriate circumstance. Duan’s work bridges the gap between the weighty reality of Rossi architecture and the playful lightness of (some of ) his representations. The suspended and interwoven Rossi forms throughout the MAXXI suggest an architecture within the museum that relinquishes the seriousness of gravitational force. The subject is encouraged to assess form for its value when stripped of its prescient effects. For better or worse.

Index

Step 1 - The City

Index

Step 2 - The Monument

Index

Step 3 - The Object

1 Room

The Model: A Model for a Qualitative Society (1968)

1 Room

The Model: A Model for a Qualitative Society (1968)

Sandbox Sandbox

Following the The Model: A Model for a Qualitative Society, by Aktion Samtal with Palle Nielsen at the Moderna Museet, the curatorial strategy for this roomforisa‘Sandbox’. In the white boxSamtal of a room, theNielsen CITYatproject is enlarged Following the The Model: A Model Qualitative Society, by Aktion with Palle the Moderna Mu- in scale and inserted the room, occupying the length ofwhite the room. roof the project city is is transformed into a walkseet,into the curatorial strategy for this nearly room is to ‘Sandbox’. In the box of aThe room, theof CITY enlarged in scale and inserted intoand the room, occupying nearly to the length of the room.applied The roof in of the is transformed intoasked a walk-to confront way, the traditional scale approach for an urban study is no longer thecity room. Viewers are way, the traditional scale and approach for an urban study is no longer applied in the room. Viewers are asked to confront the city no longer as an object, but of an experience. The room has been turned into a sandbox, a miniture world. the city no longer as an object, but of an experience. The room has been turned into a sandbox, a miniture world.

3 Rooms

Sensing the Future: The Architect as Seismograph, Venice Architecture Biennale (1996)

3 Rooms Relinquished Stability

Sensing the Future: The Architect as Seismograph, Venice Architecture Biennale (1996)

As a linear experience, the viewers are asked to viewRelinquished each room consecutively, with a prescribed order, with each room Stability lights up when entered and remain dark before entry. The order and stability of each room follows the viewer, changes as each room is entered. Following thethe progression, thetoroom goes from governing the art object, towith being As a linear experience, viewers are asked view each room consecutively, with a prescribed order, eachtaking room over, and lights up when entered and and remain dark beforereliquished entry. The order of each room follows the viewer, eventually having its order authority toand thestability monument in the middle of thechanges room.as each room is entered. Following the progression, the room goes from governing the art object, to being taking over, and eventually having its order and authority reliquished to the monument in the middle of the room.

5 Rooms

Bahia at Ibirapuera, Sao Paulo, Brazil 5 Rooms Bahia at Ibirapuera, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Reclamation Reclamation Through the continuous strip of black curtain, the viewer is only permitted seeing one room at the time. Rather than seeing the monument up front, the viewers are asked to follow the progression of the assemblage of a monument. As viewThrough the continuous of toblack curtain, the viewer is onlyonepermitted onetoroom at the time. Rather than seeers strip progresses the room after, the monument materialises, step at a time, seeing from on paper, formal elements, historical context, model,the and eventually the ground. ing the monument up front, the viewers are asked to follow progression of the assemblage of a monument. As view-

ers progresses to the room after, the monument materialises, one step at a time, from on paper, to formal elements, historical context, model, and eventually the ground.

Notes

Knowledge Bank

1. Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, Exhibit A : Exhibitions that Transformed Architecture, 1948-2000, (London: Phaidon Press Ltd, 2018) 2. Roberto Gigliotti, Displayed Spaces, (Spector Books) 3. Diane Y.F. Ghirardo, Aldo Rossi and the Spirit of Architecture 4. Simone Brott, The Form of Form: The Fold and Architecture 5. Greg Lynn, Folding in Architecture 6. Works of Rachel Whiteread, (House, 1993, Ghost, 1990) 7. Aldo Rossi, A Scientific Autobiography 8. Philip Johnson & Mark Wigley, Deconstructivist Architecture 9. Pier Vittorio Aureli, The Difficult whole, 2007 10. Nicolo Ornaghi & Arduino Cantafora, A Conversation With Arduino Cantafora