INTROSPECTION
HO KAM SHUN, SHARON STUDIO 8 MSD 2021
STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
STUDIO 8.TRIPLICATE STIRLING AT CA’ CORNER DELLA REGINA
The institutional setting of the museum functions paradoxically as the place for the generation, display and disappearance of architecture, at once affirming and suspending any evidence of architecture actually ‘being’ there. This architecture in pseudo-absentia has an uneasy relationship with the museum’s institutional order – it’s codes, practices, perceptual histories and blockbuster exhibitions.
sections of James Stirling’s architectural ideas and the 18th-century family home cum museum on the Grand Canal in Venice – classicism in triplicate. After staging a series of these tactical design responses, students will deploy these logics on a larger scale across the Ca’ Corner della Regina building; its spaces, circulation, materiality, sequencing etc. The new architectural entity will then be further tested by the introduction of the present exhibition at the venue Stop Painting as an art historical, curatorial and programmatic consideration for the design.Therefore, students should expect a three-tiered research approach: the Stirling archive at the CCA, Cá Corner della Regina (Fondazione Prada venue), and the Stop Painting exhibition at Fondazione Prada, to support their design development throughout the studio and the prophetic emergence of architectures born within the museum.
Architecture’s unease in the museum buttresses claims for the disciplinary autonomy of architecture and supposes the probability of the museum interior as a site for the emergence of new architectural modalities, co-dependent, and perhaps even independent of the museum. …Architecture born in the museum Students will work with material from the James Stirling Archive at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), drawings and other documentation of the Venetian Palazzo Ca’ Corner della Regina (the Fondazione Prada venue in Venice), and catalogues of the current exhibition on show at Fondazione Prada Venezia titled Stop Painting (conceived by artist Peter Fischli). Projects, drawings, photographs and other documents selected from the Stirling archive become source material for students to pursue designed inter-
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INTROSPECTIVE
CONTENT
WAYFINDING PLANS
P.4 - P.7
INTERVIEW (Q+A)
P.8 - P.9
PROLOGUE
P.10 - P.11
MATERIAL
P.12 - P.19
WORK
P.20 - P.39
CRITIC’S REVIEW
P.40 - P.41
INDEX
P.42 - P.53
NOTES
P.54 - P.69
KNOWLEDGE BANK
P.70 - P.104
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
WAYFINDING PLAN
TICKETING BOOTH CLOAK ROOM FEMALE TOILET
MALE TOILET
CANEL ENTRANCE
PUBLIC GLASS ROOM OFFICE
ON GROUND ENTRANCE
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SCALE 1 : 1000
5 PIANO TERRA
SCALE 1 : 500
2 SCALE 1 : 200
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INTROSPECTIVE
EXHIBITON AREA 3 (REBORN OF PAINTING)
d CAFE
a EXHIBITON AREA 1 (GETTING LOST)
SOUVENIR SHOPS OTHER EXHIBITON AREA
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EXHIBITON AREA 2 (DEATH OF PAINTING)
OTHER EXHIBITON AREA
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SCALE 1 : 500
ARTWORK: a. UNTITLED, JOSH SMITH, 2012 b. MIMETICO ,ALIGHIERO BOETTI, 1967 c. DRINK MORE, USHIO SHINOHARA, 1965 d. GABBIA, MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO, 1973
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
ARCHIVE (MUSEUM STORAGE) EXHIBITION AREA 4A (NEW FORM OF ART)
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SECURITY ROOM OTHER EXHIBITION AREA
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SCALE 1 : 500
ARTWORK: e. CATALYSIS III, ADRIAN PIPER, 1970 f. LE DEJEUNER SUR L’HERBE, ALAIN JACQUET, 1964 g. PAINTING TO PAY FOR MY HEALTHCARE, PUPPLES PUPPLES, 2019 h. WHAT IS PAINTING, JOHN BALDESSARI, 1966-1968 i. WHERE THE ENERGY COMES FROM 1, JANA EULER, 2014 j. DOOR, OLIVIER MOSSET, 2002 k. THE OPENING: INTRINSIC VALUE: 5, MERLIN CARPENTER, 2009
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INTROSPECTIVE
EXHIBITION AREA 5 (BREAKNIG THE CANVAS) OTHER EXHIBITON AREA
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OTHER EXHIBITON AREA
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ARTWORK: l. UNTITLED, DAVID HAMMONS, 2008 m. PLASTICA, ALBERTO BURRI, 1962
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
INTERVIEW (Q+A) ON STIRLING (ARCHIVE)
ON MUS EUM
What do you find most challenging when working with Stirling’s material from the CCA archive?
What are the challenges of thinking the museum beyond a container for art? What is exhibited and what does the exhibiting in your museum project? Is it that simple?
I would say it is about the extend of materials that covers/ explain the architecture. In the CCA archive it mostly cover the sparks point of Stirling design, however, to me, there still a lot of to-be appreciated parts to be discovered and appreciate while those part are hard to be found in the CCA archive. And CCA usually covers the material in the design stage, rather than the built building, hence, it is sometimes hard to relate the real-life scale of the building.
I think the challenge is how to integrate the art with the architecture itself. In my project, I was looking up the new canvas in ca’corner, instead of just using the frames in Ca’corner, I constructed the extruded dispaly frame for the artwork to draw the audience attention. The new structure are not just for display usage, but itself is also a piece of art to be exhibited.
Do you think Stirling is still relevant for contemporary discourse? If yes, why? If no, why?
What are the challenges you have encountered when working with the Ca’Corner building? E.g. the Venetian contect, the architectural ornamentation, the spatial structure, etc. How did the challenge inform your approach to the museum?
I would say yes, architecture shall never be stucked in the stage of providing function only, playfulness and interaction between space and human shall be found in the design and I suppose this is the beauty of how architecture can be appreciated by users. Stirling is a great example in demostrating how one space interacts with users, users will have different kinds of taste and perspective while travelling around his building.
I would say the ornamentation part breaks my perception towards architecture. To me, ornamentation used to be secondary items in the architecture, it shall not take over the importance of space, while in ca’corner, ornamentation is everywhere, I just basically could not neglect it as it becomes the characteristics of Ca’corner. Hence while dealing the design the un familiar kinds of element in museum was a big challenge to me, how these grand, exaggerating ornamentation can be nicely blend with the bold, playfulness of Stirling was the discussed in my design.
P.8
INTROSPECTIVE
ON EXHIBITION
ON (THE) FUTURE
Considering the role of technology in exhibition design, is this a concern for your design? If so, in what capacity?
How would you describe an architecure that exists solely inside the museum? How is that architecture different to architecture that exists outside the museum?
Yes, it is. In the serie of artwork that display in my design, artists all claimed that the are losing their canvas, hence, in my project I tried to help them to reconstruct the canvas while displaying their piece of art. In this act, it helps to frame up the work again and get the focal point of the art. Instead of losing around, artist’s piece will have its own spot light while being displayed by integrating my 3 major display method inspired by lines, surfaces and volume.
I would say that the atmosphere is different. Cohesion was found in the museum.The sound, the lighting, the circulation etc. are all well-designed and they are under controlled, while for the architecture that exists outside the museum, there are lots of other factors has to be considered. They have to response the surrounding elements like landscape, buildings around it, sound etc. All the factors have to be studied in order to make the viewer focus on the art instead of gettin g distracted.
Does this idea of exhibition or display technology change your conception of museum architecture?
How would you describe an architecure that exists solely inside the museum? How is that architecture different to architecture that exists outside the museum?
Yes,it does. I used to have the feeling that art exhibiton is boring. It is either being snapped on the wall or put inside the diplay pedestals. I didn’t expect the display can be done by integrating architect’s work into it. It immediately gives a glimpse of playfuness in the exhibition.
Definitely yes, I used to have the perception that architecture has to be in large scale to house people. However, after this project, I feel like architecture can also be appreciated in other scale. No matter in sense of dismantling the structure or simply scale down the items, it still can be appreciate. When the scale is downsized, it actually helps viewers to get clsoser to the architecture, it helps them to get closer with the architecture. Architecture itself can be a piece of art and that is the beauty of how this project inspired me.
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
PROLOGUE
In Introspective, visitors experiences James Stirling’s playful varient of postmodernism in Ca’corner Della Regina with the technique of Bright color decorative structure, complex geometry and unconventional building axis.
presented. The space was reconstructed with Stirlings’ elements presented in form of line, surface and volume. The reformation of space demostrated the collision between stirling’s playfulness and the gentleness of ca’corner. Visitor can have a glance of the general collision in the lower level of museum, when they go up to different levels, they will then go deeper into Stirling moments with experiencing the space while appreciating the artwork presented in the museum.
Ones’ experience started from the illusory circulation, the playfulness of Stirling was presented in swapping the primary circulation into a blocked circulation while turning the orginal hidden circulation as the start of the exhibition.
Sharon Ho, 2021
When one goes up to the museum, they experience the transformation of space with Stirling’s characteristics
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INTROSPECTIVE
MATERIAL
001 BALUSTRADE OF CLORE GALLERY
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
002 BALUSTRADE OF CLORE GALLERY
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INTROSPECTIVE
003 INTERIOR OF AUTHUR M.SACKLER MUSEUM
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004 WALL OF AUTHUR M.SACKLER MUSEUM
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INTROSPECTIVE
005 NEUE STAATSGALERIE ENTRANCE
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
006 ENTRANCE CANOPY SKETCH OF NEUE STAATSGALERIE
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INTROSPECTIVE
007 ENTRANCE CANOPY SKETCH OF NEUE STAATSGALERIE (2)
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
008 ENTRANCE CANOPY SKETCH OF NEUE STAATSGALERIE (3)
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INTROSPECTIVE
009 CURVING WINDOW OF NEUE STAATSGALERIE
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
WORK
SEVENY DIAGRAM
VIEW FROM THE CAFE
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INTROSPECTIVE
SITE PLAN 1 : 2000
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
EXISTING PIANO TERRA 1 : 1000
EXISTING PIANO SECONDO ANMEZZATO 1 : 1000
EXISTING PIANO PRIMO NOBILE 1 : 1000
EXISTING PIANO SECONDO NOBILE 1 : 1000
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INTROSPECTIVE
PROPOSED PIANO TERRA 1 : 1000
PROPOSED PIANO SECONDO ANMEZZATO 1 : 1000
PROPOSED PIANO PRIMO NOBILE 1 : 1000
PROPOSED PIANO SECONDO NOBILE 1 : 1000
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SCALE 1 : 1000
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SCALE 1 : 1000
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
PIANO QUARTO SOTTOTETTO +24510
PIANO TERZO +21270
PIANO SECONDO NOBILE +15790
PIANO PRIMO NOBILE +8990
PIANO SECONDO AMMEZZATO +5420
PIANO TERRA -1000
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INTROSPECTIVE
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
APPARATUS 1
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INTROSPECTIVE
Apparatus 1 shows how the Stirling’s balustrade in Clore Gallery integrates with Ca’Corner. In Clore Gallery, the balustrade is a mixture of both guiding and misleading. With its bright color, it gives the visitor a guiding perception that it is leading you somewhere, while it is actually leading you to somewhere you were not expecting. Hence, in my design, I took this concept and blended it in my design. The stairs located on left hand side, were the major circulation in existing Ca’Corner, while it was deactivated by Stirling’s element. The Balustrade was converted into direction guiding devices. It blocks ones’ move by its complex structure and the height was adjusted based on human scale. The yellow pipes are the misleading factor while the Pink pipes are the leading ones in this piece. Visitor can still go up to the stairs, while eventually they will be blocked and can only observe that the correct circulation is actually located opposite them. They will have to follow the arrows created by the Pink Pipe to go all the way down again in order to reach the new activated staircase. With the help of the Pink Pipe leading signage, visitors can finally reached the mezzanine floor, while there are two ways of stairs. To facilate the visitors’ understanding of the Stop Painting artists experience, circulation was re-arranged. It is no longer as free as the original circulation in Ca’Corner but in one way manner. Hence, the right stairs were blocked by the Artwork produced by Josh Smith. And the visitors have to continue their journey on left hand side. Elements of Stirling helps to reconstruct the museum’s space in new manner, in apparatus 1, the yellow and pink pipes indicates the Lines element for space reconstruction. It is the first element needed for the space to be reconstructed.
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
APPARATUS 2
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INTROSPECTIVE
Apparatus 2 presented the bold colours usage of Stirling in Arthur M.Sackler Museum and how Stirling plays with the material. Ca’Corner’s Ornamentation is always a highlight that represents its characteristics. Hence, making use of its preset canvas shaped ornamentation as the artwork display is the kick start of this project. Colorful glazing were added on the window. With the help of the daylight, when sun penatrates the glass, the colored shadow are projected to the wall. This is where the material overlays on one. The daylight act as the new kind of spotlight, it helps to draw visitors attention in appreciating the wall itself as Art . As the daylight will change with time flies, the position of the light projected will change with Venice’s weather, the daylight was projected on the the canvas ornamentation or the Stop Painting Artwork. It indicates that the Paintings are not always at its peak, it goes through ups and downs in their transformation. It won’t always be under spotlight and other’s work can take over the spotlight of it from time to time. In the reformation of space, the Apparatus 2 indicates the element of surfaces. The new form of museum space is getting more tangible as it was set up in form of Surfaces, new canvas in two-dimensional was created.
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
APPARATUS 3
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INTROSPECTIVE
Apparatus 3 presented the colourful structure displayed in Neue Staatsgalerie’s entrance and how the structure itself act as Artwork. In Stop Painting’s essay, My Crisis is not Your Crisis mentioned that, artists felt like they are losing their Canvas, they have hot ideas in their mind, while they got no where to display their art and idea. Hence, inspired with their desire, creating new canvas is the theme for Apparatus 3. Similar to Apparatus 2, ornamentation in Ca’Corner is still one of the highlight in this Apparatus. Making the ornamented canvas in Ca’Corner as base, with Stirling’s structure extruded from it, a three-dimensional canvas instantly popped up. Artwork appreciation shall not be only happened in the Stop Painting series, but also the Stirling’s Structure and the Ca’Corner’s Painting. There are in total 3 sets of art blends in together for visitors to appreciate at the same time. As the middle part of the museum are now turned into voids, visitor has to stay in the balcony created to appreciate the art. They have 2 ways to appreciate the artworks, either staying in the balcony created, or walk along the two wings. This correlates with the Stop Painting idea that, artwork shall not be appreciated in just one way, it can be presented in many other ways like Photography, Sculpture or even Words. The re-construction of space is presented as Volume in Apparatus 3. A spcae in architecture is not necessarily be presented as a walkable area, but can also be just a tangile space while ones cannot reach the space physically. With the form of voids created, instead of enclosed space, series of opened-up space are created in the museum, visitors are not only bounded in an enclosed area to appreciate art, but they themselves can appreciate the art while interacts with others in opposite wings of the museum.
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
PIANO QUARTO SOTTOTETTO +24510
PIANO TERZO +21270
PIANO SECONDO NOBILE +15790
PIANO PRIMO NOBILE +8990
PIANO SECONDO AMMEZZATO +5420
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PIANO TERRA -1000
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INTROSPECTIVE
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
PIANO QUARTO SOTTOTETTO +24510
PIANO TERZO +21270
PIANO SECONDO NOBILE +15790
PIANO PRIMO NOBILE +8990
PIANO SECONDO AMMEZZATO +5420
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PIANO TERRA -1000
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SECTION BB’ 1 : 200
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INTROSPECTIVE
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
PIANO QUARTO SOTTOTETTO +24510
PIANO TERZO +21270
PIANO SECONDO NOBILE +15790
PIANO PRIMO NOBILE +8990
PIANO SECONDO AMMEZZATO +5420
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PIANO TERRA -600
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INTROSPECTIVE
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INTROSPECTIVE
EXHIBITON AREA 3 (REBIRTH OF PAINTING) d
a
CAFE
EXHIBITON AREA 1
SOUVENIR SHOPS
OTHER EXHIBITON AREA c
b EXHIBITON AREA 2 (DEATH OF PAINTING)
OTHER EXHIBITON AREA
PIANO SECONDO AMMEZZATO
ARCHIVE (MUSEUM STORAGE) EXHIBITION AREA 4A (NEW FORM OF ART)
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EXHIBITION AREA 4B (NEW FORM OF ART)
SECURITY ROOM OTHER EXHIBITION AREA
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EXHIBITION AREA 5 (BREAKNIG THE CANVAS) OTHER EXHIBITON AREA
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OTHER EXHIBITON AREA
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
CRITIC’S REVIEW Written by Joanna Tidy
Sharon’s design for the display apparatus introduces a radically different architectural language to that of the existing Baroque palace, shaking the old building out of its complacency as an historic piece of Venice. The new apparatus is like a rubber band in the way that it flexibly weaves and stretches its way around and between critical aspects of the building, such as the middle staircase, and between the central walls of the Piano Nobile and Secondo Nobile levels. The oscillations across the main hall establish a thought-provoking relationship between the new apparatus that hosts the Stop Painting exhibition content, and the walls of Ca’Corner that host the historic Baroque painting. One could say that this builds on the notion of an ambiguous synthesis between art and architecture.
Sharon’s design approach could be considered to be ‘more is more’ where a surplus of display apparatus is present in the design. This philosophy of excess restores life and charisma to Ca’Corner. The use of colour is a bright and lively contrast to the faded colour palette of the palace. It is a refreshing reference to Stirling’s use of colour in his museum projects. As the old Baroque paintings on the walls fade more and more, this project could be considered a reinvigoration of the Baroque spirit.
The apparatus that cross the main hall disrupt the building’s circulation patterns, forcing the user to establish a new relationship with the museum. From a planning perspective, the functional spaces are located mostly around the perimeter of the building, whilst the principal display areas for the artwork are located centrally. Curiously, this apparatus design seems to have derived from the handrail of Stirling’s Clore Gallery staircase. It is an interesting paradox whereby the handrail used to guide people through space has now become an apparatus that blocks people’s movement for the display of art.
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INTROSPECTIVE
PIANO QUARTO SOTTOTETTO +24510
PIANO TERZO +21270
PIANO SECONDO NOBILE +15790
PIANO PRIMO NOBILE +8990
PIANO SECONDO AMMEZZATO +5420
PIANO TERRA -1000
P.41
STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
INDEX
STAGE 1 : OBJECT 1
P.42
INTROSPECTIVE
PLAYFULNESS WITH ILLUSION The object 1 starts with the handrail in Clore Gallery, the eye-catching pink and yellow handrail provides a guiding role for the visitors to a destinated place while it is actually leading them to somewhere else. While the Ca’corner staircase exhibits the steadyness, by repositioning the handrail’s order and direction, with the strong color handrail being added to the steady staircase, contradition and illusion are hence created.
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
STAGE 1 : OBJECT 2
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INTROSPECTIVE
REDUNDENT In the Arthur Gallery, colourful interior walls with “windows” are commonly shown, while windows usually be displayed on the exterior wall only, the reducndent was not only shown in the form of window but also in the vibrant colour of the walls. By adding the vibrant paint of wall in Arthur Museum to the beautifully furnished brick wall in Ca’corner helps to show the idea of Redundent more clearly.
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STUDIO 8: TRIPLICATE
STAGE 1 : OBJECT 3
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INTROSPECTIVE
SENSATION When colour comes to the audience eyes, it never fails to catch their eyeball. With the help of the frame-like designed wall in Ca’corner, by flipping, scaling, rotating, dismantling the steel-structure modules in Neue Staatsgalerie, the beauty of postmodernism is being shown in the artwork frame, where architecture meets the art.
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STAGE 2 : MUSEUM WITH OBJECT 1
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INTROSPECTIVE
STAGE 2 : MUSEUM WITH OBJECT 1
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STAGE 2 : MUSEUM WITH OBJECT 2
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INTROSPECTIVE
STAGE 2 : MUSEUM WITH OBJECT 2
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STAGE 2 : MUSEUM WITH OBJECT 3
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INTROSPECTIVE
STAGE 2 : MUSEUM WITH OBJECT 3
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NOTES
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INTROSPECTIVE
OBJECT 3 DEVELOPMENT
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OBJECT 1 DEVELOPMENT
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OBJECT 2 DEVELOPMENT
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INTROSPECTIVE
OBJECT 3 DEVELOPMENT
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INTERIM REVIEW
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OBJECT 1
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INTROSPECTIVE
DAYLIGHT EFFECT IN EARLY MORNING
DAYLIGHT EFFECT IN LATE MORNING
DAYLIGHT STUDY
OBJECT 2 INTEGRATES WITH CA’CORNER
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INTROSPECTIVE
OBJECT 3 INTEGRATES WITH CA’CORNER
PLANS
OBJECT 2 INTEGRATES WITH CA’CORNER
SWITCHING BETWEEN THE CIRCULATION AND EXHIBITION SPACE
OBJECT 3 INTEGRATES WITH CA’CORNER
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INTROSPECTIVE
APPARATUS
LONG SECTION
LONG SECTION
PLANS
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KNOWLEDGE BANK
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INTROSPECTIVE
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INTROSPECTIVE
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INTROSPECTIVE
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INTROSPECTIVE
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INTROSPECTIVE
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INTROSPECTIVE
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James Stirling and Architectural Colour
A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities
2013
Michael W Farr
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
P.82
INTROSPECTIVE
The increasingly flamboyant colour schemes of Stirling’s later projects have inevitably come under some scrutiny, but more often than not only in relation to each specific building. This is particularly so with the Clore Gallery and the Neue Staatsgalerie. In John Summerson’s account of the former, colour is largely discussed in terms of its referencing neighbouring buildings and as a means to identify individual elevations, but never as a strategy for simultaneously asserting the presence of this structure in relation to the host building, or how this might be representative of more long-term ambitions.45 Chapter Four of this thesis discusses colour as a means to attract and guide visitors around Stirling’s designs and in doing so builds upon Jencks’s account of the multi-coloured Neue Staatsgalerie.46 His article acknowledges the importance of the multi-coloured awnings to experiencing and using the structure, but describes them as mere ‘punk additions’, demoting them to little more than ornamental eccentricities.47 At no point is the relevance of their striking visual presence to the rest of Stirling’s designs discussed. And as recently as 2009 the editorial of OASE Journal for Architecture No. 79 dismissed Stirling’s use of colour as initially ‘striking and wilfully vulgar [eventually fading] into inoffensive pastels’, declaring some difficulty in reconciling his and Gowan’s output with his much later work.48 That these publications do not explore Stirling’s use of colour does not prevent them from offering valuable information regarding his career. Mark Girouard’s authorised biography of the architect gives a detailed account of many aspects of Stirling’s life over and above his architecture, from his childhood until his death in 1992.49 Mark Crinson’s edited collection of Stirling’s unpublished writings has proved especially valuable.50 Offering insight into Stirling’s formative years as a
45 John Summerson, ‘Vitruvius Ridens or Laughter at the Clore’, Architectural Review, Vol.181, (June 1987), 44-46. 46 Charles Jencks, ‘The Casual, the Shocking and the Well Ordered Acropolis’, Architectural Design, Vol.54, (3/4 1984), 48-55. 47 Ibid, 48. 48 ‘Editorial’, OASE Journal for Architecture, No. 79, (2009), 5. 49 Mark Girouard, Big Jim: The Life and Works of James Stirling, (London: 2000). 50 Mark Crinson, (Ed.) James Stirling – Early Unpublished Writings on Architecture, (London and New York: 2010).
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fundamentally alter his architectural principles. Stirling’s designs may have become more overtly historicist, brighter and more colourful, but he remained resolute that his work was not part of a broader trend that seemed to so enthusiastically reject the achievements of Modernism. His architecture, as he claimed, might well have progressed via a constant swing from one style to another, resulting in visually very different buildings, but his desire to communicate through his built work remained a constant from his earliest designs. The following three, visually very different buildings illustrate the considerable lengths to which Stirling went to forge recognizable links with their immediate and broader contexts, while simultaneously using incongruous colour schemes to afford each building an emphatic visual presence. All three have been labelled PostModern, and, indeed, display many of its characteristics, but the presence of a ‘fictional character’ or ‘narrative’, tailored specifically to each individual site, also contributes to the proposition that across Stirling’s oeuvre there exists significant layers of continuity. The Clore Gallery, London and the Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin Of the three buildings discussed in this chapter (the third being Number One Poultry, London), these two are worthy of direct comparison as they reveal how Stirling’s awareness of context delivered two completely different results. The Wissenschaftszentrum (herein referred to as the WZB) is a commentary on the broader history of Berlin as a city, and the fragmented collage it had become after the war, and the Clore creates its own fictional narrative of a subservient ‘garden building’ to the Tate’s dominant ‘manor house’, and exhibits a more overt sensitivity towards its immediate neighbours. Pre-dating the Clore Gallery by just one year, the opportunity to design the WZB came to Stirling and Wilford following a limited competition in 1979. 55 In this project the architects were asked to produce a building for the Institute of Social 55
Girouard, Mark, Big Jim: The Life and Works of James Stirling, (London: 2000), 223.
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‘Prussian heaviness’.77 Referencing the traditional tri-partite composition (stone tiles/piano rustica, painted stucco/piano nobile and cornice/corona) the orderliness and symmetry of this repetitive and un-complicated façade (fifteen identical windows either side of a central entrance) implies an authority of almost civic proportions (Ill.3.17).78 The theatrical ‘narrative’ of the inner sanctum has been replaced here by one of institutionalised sobriety synonymous with governmental bodies; the un-altered colour scheme paradoxically enhancing both. The Clore Gallery presents a very different use of colour in relation to context. Incorporating colours and materials that make explicit reference to neighbouring buildings (something that has been well documented and needs only a brief re-cap here)79 this project exemplifies how, through careful and considered application and distribution, Stirling employed them in such a way as to draw attention towards his own building and away from the older museum, despite claims to the contrary.80 Stirling and Wilford’s extension to Sidney Smith’s 1897 Tate Gallery museum was finally approved in March 1981, following an initial interview at the end of 1979. It is an L shaped building with its longest section emerging from the north-east flank of the older museum, and the shorter return pointing toward the river Thames (Ill. 3.18).
The five individually defined sides (all visible to varying degrees) appear
muted in comparison to the WZB, and reflect Stirling’s sensitivity toward building
77
No Author Cited, ‘Science Centre’, 77. Mackay, ‘Fitting in Berlin’, 37. Mackay suggests the relationship between the individual and society as a whole in Germany was ‘balanced in favour of the public realm’, something Stirling and Wilford understood. By incorporating broad bands of colour rather than intricate detailing, they afforded this building a sense of typically Germanic civic importance, something Mackay believed was ‘the only important key to Berlin architecture’. 79 There are numerous accounts of how the materials and colours used on the Clore work to mediate between The Tate and the neighbouring red brick lodge, two of the more detailed being David Jenkins, Clore Gallery, Tate Gallery, Liverpool - James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates Architecture in Detail, (London: 1992) and Charles Jencks, ‘Interview: The Clore Gallery’, Architecture and Urbanism, No.204, (September 1987), 38-46. 80 Stirling stated on many occasions that he did not want this building to compete with the older, host museum and explained that the positioning of the entrance was a result of this. James Stirling, Michael Wilford, and Associates, ‘The Clore Gallery for the Turner Collection, Tate Gallery, London’, Architectural Design Profile 39, Vol.52, (1/2 1982), 106. This point was reiterated by Russell Bevington who worked extensively on the project. Letter to the author 4/5/09. 78
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transformations across the surfaces of the building in-between. Rather than reading the ‘river-side’ of the Clore as a series of events from left to right, moving away from the host building, the pale Portland stone panel surrounding the entrance serves to present the walls on either side as two extremes, meeting somewhere in the middle. At one end the white stone frame with pale cream stucco panels emerges from the Tate, while at the other the same grid, filled with red bricks, moves away from the lodge; contrasting neighbours that allowed Stirling to play a duplicitous game. If the size of his extension suggests a deference and subservience, then it does so only to the older museum. In turning his building in the direction of the lodge and increasing its height, the Clore physically dominates the older brick building which, in turn, offered Stirling a colour scheme to compete with the Tate’s white stone. The process of drawing attention away from the older host building begins with the pale stone grid and the cream coloured panels on the wall that emerges from the Tate’s flank. The square frames and panels perform two important functions. Initially they serve to neutralize this elevation; as squares they prevent either a vertical or horizontal dynamic from dominating. Secondly, as Rowe observed in relation to Renaissance architecture, the framing process, by definition, encourages expectations of significance for what is contained.83 However, by filling these frames with blank panels of pale-cream stucco, any expectations we might subconsciously harbour when seeing this wall are left unfulfilled, and the presence of this longer elevation is subdued. At the point where the building turns through ninety degrees the neutrality of the longer wall is emphatically halted by the substantial stone panel surrounding the entrance. The seemingly solid wall of stone carries a formal monumentality, synonymous with traditional museums and galleries, that is enhanced by the depth 83
Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Idea Villa and Other Essays, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1982), 31.
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of the triangular recessed entrance (Ill.3.21) and the tiny lunette window directly above it (an inversion of the pediment and lunette that appears on the wall of the Tate opposite). The reflective nature of the rectangular, ornamental pond, situated directly in front of the entrance, compounds this formality while reinforcing the theme of the Clore as a garden building.84 When viewed down its length - it was built parallel to the panelled wall - the dramatic impact of the Clore’s entrance is doubled. Despite his almost frivolous use of coloured materials, Stirling ensured that the status of this museum was not over-looked. To approach the Clore’s dedicated entrance one must turn one’s back on the host building, and the variety of colours displayed on this shorter façade (and the end elevation that faces on to the brick lodge) work to draw the eye. The bright green of the doors and surrounding window frame is highlighted by the paleness of the adjacent stone. To the right of this Stirling re-introduced the stone grid, but replaced the stucco with increasing amounts of red brick to match the neighbouring lodge. These in turn continue around the corner only to be halted unexpectedly part way along the end, or third elevation where a glazed, industrial yellow brick covers the remainder of this, and the fourth wall from top to bottom. Compared to the neutrality of the pale cream panelled wall, the colour changes displayed on these two shorter elevations leave them visually busier; a contributory factor in drawing attention away from the older building. The effectiveness of these design decisions is more easily explained if Stirling’s design is compared to Gunnar Asplund’s extension to the Göteborg Law Courts (1934-7 Ill.3.22). Being similarly built on to a largely neo-classical, nineteenthcentury building, Asplund’s design reveals a recognisable degree of contextual sympathy. By simulating the tri-partite composition of the Law Courts through his fenestration and the rhythm of pilasters, his exposed grid, and a suitably deferential colour for the painted stucco, Asplund attempted to establish a hierarchical relationship between his addition and the older building. This is further enhanced by 84
A visit by the author to the Clore on 12/2/09 revealed this pond had been paved over.
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placing the windows in each of the framed panels to the left, rather than centrally, creating a right-to-left dynamic in favour of the host. However, despite being no higher than the old Law Courts, and being set slightly back from the line of its façade, his extension dominates. The absence of a new and separate entrance implicates his addition as inherently part of the older structure, severely compromising the latter building’s symmetry and balance. The Clore, however, avoids similarly affecting its host building, yet asserts itself just as effectively. As has been explained, Stirling’s extension, being lower than the Tate, implies a subordination that does not compromise Smith’s façade. But by situating the Clore’s entrance in the wall that returns to the lodge, he prevented the two entrances from being squarely viewed at the same time. The result is that when accessing the Clore through its dedicated, multi-coloured entrance, its status as an extension is all but forgotten. The remaining two walls, of what is essentially a five sided extension, are used to similar effect. Stirling justified using glazed, yellow bricks on the less public, fourth side with the presence of the service entrance,85 but his introduction of these industrial materials into the colour scheme of the more easily viewed third wall facing the red brick lodge, create a visual anomaly hard to miss. Dispensing with the white stone grid altogether, these smooth bricks, with deeply recessed joints that emphasise their sharp brittle surface, are both utilitarian and un-inviting; contrasting significantly with the more textured and irregular red alternative (as can be seen in the centre of Ill.3.20). Stirling only returned to the redbrick and stucco on the fifth elevation that reconnected with the Tate (which was to have been open to the public in the event of further planned developments being carried out).86
85
Stirling, ‘Design Philosophy and Recent Work’, 9. The Clore Gallery was intended to be the first stage of a much larger development of the Tate Gallery and, had it been completed, would have contained more gallery rooms and an open air sculpture court. For a detailed account of the overall proposal see Jenkins, Clore Gallery, Tate Gallery, Liverpool. 86
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Treating the walls of the Clore ‘as a painter treats a canvas’,87 Stirling manipulated colours and textures (some contextually inspired, some not) as he saw fit, to lead the eye and hold the gaze. Interrupting any obvious visual rhythms established by the grid, he highlighted the change from one traditional material to another, drawing attention not only to the polychromatic surface as a whole, but to the superficiality of the materials themselves. Continuing these layers of colour around corners and past the stone entrance panel ensures that the modernity of the building’s composition becomes instantly recognisable, establishing it as being fundamentally different from Smith’s. The first of these ‘interruptions’ (working from the Tate toward the lodge) occurs as the building turns through ninety degrees. Although the entrance panel begins precisely at the corner, the grid itself is left incomplete by the turn. This abrupt halting of surface detail is mirrored on the other side of the entrance section where similarly stunted stucco panels appear. A comparable displacing of contextual reference takes place with the introduction of the red brick in-fill. Introduced along a left to right, upward diagonal it reaches its highest point just prior to turning the corner of the wall that faces directly on to the lodge (a corner that once again occurs part way through a panel rather than on the frame itself). 88 As mentioned, this red brick is then halted to make way for the more functionally appropriate, industrial yellow brick of the service area. Continuing these coloured materials beyond the corners also avoids reducing the extension to a series of five disparate elevations, which would have compromised the presentation of the building as a single entity. This is important for the three elevations visible as one approaches the entrance. The contrast between the neutrality of the longer, cream panelled wall, and the busy-ness of the two shorter 87 This comment was made in a letter from the Royal Fine Arts Commission to Ian Lacey of Westminster City Planning Office dated 18/3/81. While this approach was not itself thought disagreeable, concern was raised regarding the use of yellow brick on the service area elevation. Westminster Council Planning Archive, file no.TP1893. 88 An undated preliminary sketch shows the brick in-fills beginning immediately after the stone surrounding the entrance with no brick/stucco introduction panels. The effect is that their presence as a veneer is much less obvious. CCA file no. AP140.S2.SS1.D60.SD1.P4.2.
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