FROM A LIE Nan Hang Zhang 832509 Studio 08
WAYFINDING PLANS
10 9
11
1
5
4
3 2
12 13
Ground Floor
First Floor
Duplicate programs 1. Landscape 2. Entrance Hall 3. Reception 4. Temporary Exhibition 5. Graphic Collection 6. Exhibition Suite 1 7. Auditorium 8. Shop 9. Coffee Bar 10. Exhibition Suite 2 11. Exhibition Suite 3 12. Exhibition Suite 4 13. Exhibition Suite 5
6
8
7
Second Floor
PROLOGUE
To misrepresent is, in plain language, to lie, to deceive. But a misrepresentation also decontextualises, discredits, and disrupts the relationships between elements. Aldo Rossi’s architectural representation - specifically his perspective for his student housing project in Chieti - distorts and compresses the space between and around architectural forms. In so doing, he reframes and re-emphasises the importance of form. The MAXXI museum, on the other hand, prioritises its interior spaces, and the flowing, continuous, experience provided in its galleries. The relationship between galleries is both spatial and temporal, with a clear sequencing of spaces into five distinct exhibition suites. This project investigates what it means to distort and transform the chronology of these elements, what it means to decontextualise the context of the museum, and what it means to misrepresent the MAXXI.
Q+A Interview with Lachlan Welsh
Q: 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?
Q: What is the challenge of exhibiting architecture? What is exhibited and what does the exhibiting in your project? Is it that simple?
A: In terms of relating to Rossi I can draw a distinction between my step one work and my step three, in terms of drawing from Rossi for those perspectives and axonometrics. In step one it was more about formal exploration, and playing around with Rossian forms and applying them to the different tasks and exercises of step one. In step three it’s not so much about form as about a method or process that’s derived from a specific Rossi perspective drawing. As the semester has progressed, I have approached Rossi in different ways, so I don’t know whether that would constitute moving out of his shadow. I don’t know, I guess it’s a change of some sort.
A: In terms of the challenge of exhibiting architecture, I think in many ways you can tie that back to how you want to define architecture. Because I think for some you might say that architecture has to be used or lived in or occupied. Other people may see architecture more as the form itself. There are a variety of different definitions of what architecture is, and those definitions affect the ability or the difficulties of exhibiting that particular kind of architecture. If you approach architecture as pure form, then exhibiting becomes a focus on that form and how you shape the exhibition space, or use it to complement or respond to the exhibited work. If you are approaching architecture from a more pragmatic standpoint in terms of its use, then obviously when exhibiting architecture from that viewpoint it becomes not ‘real’ architecture per se, but more of a simulation or representation of architecture, a step or two removed. In my project, I suppose in some way it’s the MAXXI exhibiting itself. I’m trying to take the spatial and chronological relationships of the MAXXI spaces and manipulate them. So, it’s exhibiting parts of the MAXXI in relation to other parts, and then my intent is to play with and disrupt those spatial and chronological relationships.
Q: Do you think Rossi is still relevant for contemporary discourse? If yes, why? If no, why? A: Well, the first thing I should say would be, as a disclaimer, that I’m not terribly in tune with contemporary discourse, at least in terms of theory. Usually what I hear about contemporary architecture tends to be more concerned with practice and not so much theory. But to answer the question, I find architectural history - history in general - quite interesting and compelling, and I think in general Rossi would be part of this as well. There is a lot that can be learnt from analysing and understanding really any part of architectural history or the history of architectural theory. The ideas, the context, the goals and the aims, the ideals.
Q: How would you describe an architecture that exists solely inside the museum? How is that architecture different to architecture that exists outside of the museum?
A: Aside from the different definitions of architecture that I talked about for the previous question, you could also talk about the viewers’ or users’ relationship or interaction with the architecture. When it’s inside the museum that interaction becomes specifically one of viewing the architecture, but not exclusively in the sense of standing away from it and looking at it. Even if it’s a life-size 1:1 exhibit in the museum, and you can walk through it, it’s still not seen as actually inhabiting the architecture, necessarily. Even if you’re standing in the midst of it, you’re still viewing it with a certain detachment. And then architecture outside of the museum – homes, schools, offices – there’s always a much more direct relationship between the architecture and the user. Q: 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? A: My main moment of crisis would be initially when I was focused on the idea of the perspective, and having multiple conflicting perspectives laid over one another, which is more of an optical effect. So, it’s the kind of thing that would only work when the viewer is standing in one specific position. I was probably overly focused on that as an effect, and the challenge that made me unable to progress for quite some time was that it didn’t really inform a broader strategy, in terms of planning or the spatial organisation
of what I wanted to do. Focusing on that was too much of a focus on the result of the effect and not enough on the actual process of developing a design. At this point I have moved away from that optical focus. It’s not really directly present anymore. I am still deriving my design strategy from the same perspective drawing, but I’m taking from it a process or method, rather than the final optical effect of conflicting perspectives. Q: Has your project for an architecture exhibition changed your position or attitude to architecture more generally? If yes, how? A: I don’t know if I would say it’s changed necessarily, expanded would be probably a better word. I don’t think I’m a particularly opinionated sort of person. I know a lot of architects have really strong opinions on what they think constitutes good design and what’s bad. I tend to be less decisive in my opinions. I generally try to look at things and not get too bogged down in good or bad and just try to understand what’s going on. Even before this project and semester I had a fairly broad and non-specific attitude towards architecture. This project has just introduced another wrinkle into that rather than changing anything significantly.
ROSSI ARCHIVE DRAWINGS Progetto per una casa dello studente, Chieti MAXXI Archive
FERLENGA PAGES - RESIDENTIAL PROJECT Proposal for a student dormitory in Chieti, 1976
Ferlenga, A., Rossi, A. (2001). Aldo Rossi: The Life and Works of an Architect. Germany: Könemann.
FERLENGA PAGES - CITY Proposal for the central business district in Florence, 1977
Ferlenga, A., Rossi, A. (2001). Aldo Rossi: The Life and Works of an Architect. Germany: Könemann.
GHIRARDO PAGES - MONUMENT Ghirardo, D. (2019). Aldo Rossi and the Spirit of Architecture. United Kingdom: Yale University Press.
OVERVIEW ISOMETRIC
SITE PLAN
0
50m
Original MAXXI
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
0
25m
Original MAXXI
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
0
25m
Original MAXXI
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
0
25m
Original MAXXI
1+2
Perspective: view along length of exhibition suites
Fragment: Incision
2+3
Perspective: view of raised platforms
Fragment: Ascent
3+4
Perspective: view of ramp and concrete walls
Fragment: Passage
4+5
Perspective: view of exhibition suite and glass wall
Fragment: Division
5+1
Perspective: view of museum exterior within new interior
Fragment: Overlap
CRITIC’S REVIEW Hongchang Duan
For someone to know Rossi’s architecture, it is not enough to simply experience his built works, nor is it enough to just look at his architectural drawings. For his unfinished Progetto per una casa dello studente in Chieti, drawings such as the Composition showing the communal building and the student rooms hold as much weight in the expression of his architecture as the final product itself, if not more so. The drawing is a juxtaposition of different projections of the architectural drawings, deliberately misrepresenting the spatial and contextual relationships of the various forms. Upon first look at the one-point perspective, the middle ground dominates the drawing, with the communal building in the middle blocking the groundline, while the form in the foreground seemingly shows a similar form, but tilted ever so slightly, producing a different angle of perspective from the middle ground, as if it is on a collision course, constantly disrupting one’s viewing of the project. In Nan Hang Zhang’s From a Lie, this graphical anomaly is transformed into an architectural one. The work, while at first glance seemingly retains the Zaha Hadid-designed MAXXI as it is, has undoubtedly produced a new reality within the MAXXI, one that fragments the chronology and spatiality of the original. In Zhang’s work, the MAXXI’s flow of space is disrupted, not by foreign objects, but by MAXXI itself. Forms from the MAXXI are dissembled, dislocated, and emerge in places they do not originally belong. The disruption at times is subtle and restrained, as a few seemingly misplaced walls subconsciously make one realign oneself with a new suggested direction. At times the disruption gains weight, such as on the second floor of the East Wing, as the West Wing from the alternative reality grows from the original Exhibition Suite 5, one is taken back to the ground floor of the MAXXI, with the presence of the Exhibition Suite 5, one would question which is the original, and which is the intrusion. It is at these moments the drawing for the student accommodation in Chieti finds its way into the MAXXI, exhibiting itself. Zhang’s From a Lie produces an architecture that is ostensibly Hadidian, but after stripping away its formal surface, reveals a fundamentally Rossian move. It echoes the composition in the drawing from Rossi’s student accommodation in Chieti, without imitating Rossian formal language. It lets the Rossi project grow out of MAXXI naturally, not by force. This leaves the viewer to discover Rossi, and as a result, the discovery is much more joyous.
STEP 1.1 - CITY
Perspective
Axonometric
STEP 1.2 - MONUMENT
Axonometric
Section - Axonometric
STEP 1.3 - ANALOGOUS
Axonometric - Front
Axonometric - Back
STEP 2.1 - DEPTH IN COLOUR
Curatorial design strategy: The exhibition space is articulated through the use of colour, such that the perspective from which the art object is viewed becomes a geometric composition that accentuates and frames the work. The simple forms of the space are flattened into blocks of colour reminiscent of an abstract painting. This flattening effect is countered by the placement of light and the use of a foreground element, which returns depth to the perspective, and directs the viewer towards the flat planes of the space. The play of flatness and depth blurs the focus of the exhibition between the art object and the spatial experience. Blue-Purple Room, 1952, Amsterdam
STEP 2.2 - ORIENTATION
Archaeology of the City, 1977, Paris
Curatorial design strategy:
The art object is both the exhibited work and the exhibition sp work itself – in this case a series of walls that abstract the housin the exhibition spaces. The spaces are oriented towards other elements in the otherwise uniform field of walls. These objects
pace. Within the broader space of the building, smaller exhibition spaces are defined using the ng forms of the city project. Visitors are therefore embedded into the work simply by experiencing art objects – images and models of the city project – which are introduced as heterogeneous s become focal points, to be viewed from within a space that itself is an abstraction of the work.
STEP 2.3 - LAYERING
Transformations in Modern Architecture, 1979, New York
Curatorial design strategy: The art object is exhibited through a series of nested spaces, each highlighting a new aspect of the work. Visitors begin with a 1:1 abstraction, and progressively move through modes of representation before finishing with orthogonal drawings. The configuration of the exhibition spaces accentuates this process, highlighting the qualities of each layer of representation and the contrasts between them. Each shift in depth, scale, and subjectivity reveals elements and ideas that arise during the journey from a flat sheet of paper to built form.
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KNOWLEDGE BANK
Drexler, A., Museum of Modern Art (New York, N. (1979). Transformations in modern architecture. Boston: Museum of Modern Art. Eisenman, P. (1993). Greater Columbus Convention Center. Retrieved from https:// eisenmanarchitects.com/Greater-Columbus-Convention-Center-1993 Eyck, A. v. (1952). The Blue-Purple Room [image]. Retrieved from http://vaneyckfoundation. nl/2018/11/23/the-blue-purple-room-stedelijk-museum-amsterdam-1952/ Ferlenga, A., Rossi, A. (2001). Aldo Rossi: The Life and Works of an Architect. Germany: Könemann. Garcia, M. (2010). MAXXI, Rome: Zaha Hadid Architects. Architectural Design, 80(3), 132-135. Ghirardo, D. (2019). Aldo Rossi and the Spirit of Architecture. United Kingdom: Yale University Press. Gigliotti, R. (2015). Displayed Spaces: New Means of Architecture Presentation Through Exhibitions. Germany: Spector Books. Lynn, G. (Ed.). (1993). Folding in Architecture. United Kingdom: Wiley. Oppositions Reader: Selected Essays 1973-1984. (1998). United States: Princeton Architectural Press. Panofsky, E. (1991). Perspective as symbolic form. Cambridge: Zone Books. Rossi, A. (1982). The Architecture of the City. United Kingdom: MIT Press. Rossi, A., & Huet, B. (1997). Architecture, Furniture and Some of My Dogs. Perspecta, 28, 95-113. Rossi, A., Venuti, L. (1984). A Scientific Autobiography. United Kingdom: MIT Press. Scolari, M. (2015). Oblique Drawing: A History of Anti-perspective. United Kingdom: MIT Press.