Int Interventions
AR Adaptive Reuse
Volume 04
Adaptive reuse architecture applied in difficult memories
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c ite h c Ar sign r e io er of D t n f I ool o t ch en d S m an rt a sl I p De ode Rh
Peter Zumthor transcends time with Kolumba Art Museum Art Museum, Cologne, GERMANY
1 Left View of Zumthor museum Overview picture of Zumthor museum from the street.
2 Above Inside of Museum Detailed shot of museum inside that shows general mood of the building.
Although our lives take place everywhere, we remember some places in particular. One such place is “Kolumba” in Cologne’s city centre. A secret garden, stone ruins, a uniquely dense archaeological site are the most impressive symbol of the city’s almost complete destruction during the Second World War. “Kolumba” is intended to be a place for reflection. The occasion is the new building for the Cologne Diocese Museum, which was established in 1853 and which features an extraordinary collection spanning from early Christianity to contemporary art. The new building designed by Peter Zumthor transfers the sum of the existing fragments into one complete building. In adopting the original plans and building on the ruins, the new building becomes part of the architectural continuum. The warm grey brick of the massive building unite with the tuffs, basalt and bricks of the ruins. The new building develops seamlessly from the old remains whilst respecting it in every detail. In terms of urban planning, it restores the lost core of one of the once most beautiful parts of Co-
logne’s city centre. Inside the building a peaceful courtyard takes the place of a lost medieval cemetery. The largest room of the building encompasses the two thousand year structure of the city as an uncensored memory landscape. Its “filter walls” create air and light permeable membranes which contain within them the functionally independent chapel. The chapel is removed from the changing cityscape and given a final location, in which it will be assured a dignified continuing existence. Located above – carried by slim columns, which gently prod the archaeological excavation like needles – is an exhibition floor. Its spatial structure was similarly developed from the idiosyncratic ground plan. It connects seamlessly to the northern building part, which – as a completely new building – will house further exhibition rooms and the treasury as well as the stairway, foyer, museum entrance and the underground storage areas. The sixteen exhibition rooms possess the most varying qualities with regard to incoming daylight, size, proportion und pathways. What they all have in common is the reduced
“Zumthor successfully achieved both material presence and dignified handling of the past.�
1 Previous Page View of Zumthor museum Overview picture of Zumthor museum from the entrance. 2 Left Detail shot of yard area Detailed shot of stone images in Zumthor museum yard 3 Below Library circulation area Detailed shot of Library circulation area. every light, wood texture was chosen by the architect.
materiality of the brick, mortar, plaster and terrazzo in front of which will appear the works of art. Kolumba will be a shadow museum which will evolve only in the course of the day and the seasons. Some of the wall-sized windows allow daylight to penetrate from all directions. The steel frames decorate the brick coat like brooches and segment the monumental facade. Though respectful of the location and the seriousness of its contents, Kolumba will emanate serenity and an inviting cheerfulness. Building on the
past Peter Zumthor’s new art museum in Cologne is magnificently successful, in terms of both material presence and dignified handling of the past. There are few places where a history stretching back thousands of years is more legible than the site of the Gothic St. Kolumba church, destroyed in WWII, in the centre of Cologne. Archaeologists started excavating the area of rubble in the 1970s. Apart from the church ruins dating from around 1500 and the chapel of the “Madonna in the Ruins” which was built inside
them by Gottfried Böhm in the 1950s, they have unearthed layers from the Late Medieval, Caroligian, Frankian and Roman periods. Now a contemporary layer is being added. Swiss architect Peter Zumthor has built a new art museum over the archaeological site, the Gothic ruins and Böhm’s chapel, which is magnificently successful in terms of both of material presence and dignified handling of the past. Symbolically and literally, the new museum builds on what exists already. It follows the direction established by the
Gothic church walls, incorporating, at ground floor-level, both their remains and an exterior wall of Böhm’s chapel. Over this towers an imposing, nigh on 30-metre tall block of specially-made matt grey bricks with a yellowish shimmer and a rough, grooved surface which invites the play of light and shadow on the facade. Gottfried Böhm protested heavily against his chapel being built over, although his competition entry included similar plans. His chapel is undoubtedly a point of identification in Cologne but is no crowning architectural achievement. The central vault of the Gothic nave is now covered with prestressed concrete. For years it the struggled to compete with the dynamic ribbon windows of Bruno Paul’s Dischhaus opposite, and was surrounded by the excavation site with its improvised roof, a few bushes and a faceless post-war building. Zumthor has now returned the volume of the Gothic church to the city, and in the process won 2,000 square metres of exhibition surfaces, storage and office rooms. The exhibition rooms stand at a height of 12 metres on slim pillars which have been carefully planted among the archaeological findings so as not to damage them. The brick wall which
follows the ground plan of the church is perforated up to this level like a chunky knit pullover, allowing in sufficient air and light to maintain the outdoor climate necessary to conserve the excavation site. Böhm’s octagonal chapel stands in this high twilit room, Behind the museum, Peter Zumthor has given back the city a historic passageway and the old St. Kolumba churchyard, a leafy pocket of serenity which is now surrounded by an enormous wall of rough compressed concrete. You can sit here gazing at the bricks and feel no need whatsoever to be anywhere else in the world. The building’s incredible aura has escaped sullying by the Archbishop of Cologne Cardinal Meisner who commissioned it, His own collection of art confutes his argument, being as it is an understandably hodge-podge amassment of gifts from various foundations of sacred and profane art. And the sacred art in this collection cannot lay exclusive claims to reflection and endowment of meaning. Stefan Lochner’s “Madonna mit den Veilchen” (Madonna with the violet) which in the new museum enjoys a view of the cathedral, and Josef Albers’ yellow square hanging opposite, next to the rustic Pingsdorf Mother of God (circa 1170) and Edouardo Chillida’s “Gravitaciones”: this juxtaposition attempts to bring about a dialogue between the works as well as to allow their respective individual qualities to shine as such. Katharina Winnekes:
Museum of Reflection or the Squaring of the Circlesimilar to the »Wunderkammern« of times past which offered the important and the peculiar, gave insights into what was worth knowing or believing, and which thereby proposed poibilities of understanding the world. Notes: 1 Michel Foucault, Andere Räume, typescript of a paper given at the Cercle d’études architecturales, Paris, March 14, 1967, published in: German in Karlheinz Barck / Peter Gente / Heidi Paris / Stefan Richter (eds.) Aithesis. Wahrnehmung heute oder Perspektiven einer anderen Ästhetik, Leipzig, 1990, pp. 34-46, esp. p. 38f. 2 »The utopias are the placements without a real place: the placements which have with the real places of society a relationship of immediate or reversed analogy. Perfection of society or the flipside of society, at any rate utopias are largely unreal places.« Ibid.First published in: »kunst und kirche«, Kunst - Kirche - Öffentlichkeit, Heft 4, November 1995
1 Previous Page View of Zumthor museum Overview picture of Zumthor museum from the entrance. 2 Left Detail shot of yard area Detailed shot of stone images in Zumthor museum yard
difficult memories and its relationship to architecture
relationship between memory and architecture The beautiful thing about architecture is that it can “tap into” an occupant’s past meaningful experiences through their senses and their emotion. Architecture also has the power set the stage for occupants to create new meaningful experiences — and memory plays a key role in helping to make all of this possible.
Architectural sites play an important role in cultural memory. Our society often uses architectural sites as a place to gather and grieve over difficult memories of the past. For example, the Vietnam Veteran Memorial and the Jewish Museum in Berlin are two such spaces. However, adaptive reuse can play a more meaningful and practical role in the healing process. By re-using buildings or sites from previous memory, this process can represent turning difficult memories into a hopeful future. It is normally said that you have to be fixed in space and in time if you want to belong somewhere. The sites of memory are, in the proper sense of the word, crucial. They are crossroads where space and time meet. People often make a building about difficult memories for several reasons. People need a place where they embrace the past, honor heroes, and inform their communities in order to avoid the recurrence of tragic events. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial for example, honors the memory of loved ones by focusing on the
heroes themselves. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national memorial in Washington D.C. that honors U.S. service members who fought in the Vietnam War. People gather in this place and remember those who fought for the country. For those who lost loved ones in this war, this memorial provides them with a place to grieve and to educate others about the war. The Memorial Wall is made up of two gabbro walls that are 246 feet 9 inches long and filled with the names those who died during battle or who were missing in action. When visitors visit the memorial, the reflection of their faces is seen on the wall simultaneously with the names of veterans, making it a poignant and interactive display. Another example is the Jewish Museum in Berlin. To recognize both the role Jews had as co-creators of Berlin’s history and culture and to recognize that the city was fundamentally haunted by the eventual absence of Jewish people. The Jewish Museum contains many metaphors toward the difficult memories of Jews in the past. The
destruction: 1 wanton destruction of a town. 2 demolition; annihilation. 3 a cause or means of destroying.
1 Previous Page Left. Detail shot of yard area Detailed shot of stone images in Zumthor museum yard
3 Previous Page View of Zumthor museum Overview picture of Zumthor museum from the entrance.
2 Below Library circulation area Detailed shot of Library circulation area. every light, wood texture was chosen by the architect.
damentally haunted by its Jewish absence. Jewish Museum contains lots of metaphor towards difficult memories of Jews in the past. The architect Daniel Libeskind said “If architecture can be representative of historical meaning, it can also represent unmeaning and the search for meaning”. Jewish Museum is a great example of his belief about architecture and its historical meaning. First of all, all the buildings are separated like they are torn apart and each building represents certain part of Jewish history. First building is called between the lines. This building is a one line almost like
a hallway, but broken into many fragments by the other line called tortuous line, which represents Jewish history. The next building is called lines without order. The positioning of the windows, primarily narrow slit, follows a precise matrix. During the design process the architect Daniel Libeskind plotted the addresses of prominent Jewish and German citizens on a map of pre-war Berlin and joined the points to form an “irrational and invisible matrix” on which he based the geometry and shape of the building. The underground passageway that connects new building and the old building is called void.
From the old building, a staircase leads down to the basement through a void of bare concrete that joins the two buildings. When you keep going with underground passageway it leads to Libeskind building, which has no official entrance. Visitors who pass through the great void down to the end of the staircase from the Old building will find the Rafael Roth Learning center on the right, while ahead of them lies a path system made up of three axes symbolizing three realities in the history of German Jews. The final building is the garden of exile. The building attempts to completely disorient the visitor, which
“ if architecture can be representative of historical meaning, can it also represent unmeaning and the search for meaning? �
grief needs space represents shipwreck of history. Previous two buildings are great example of traditional way for society to express grief. However, I think these sites can be more meaningful and practical in healing process by choose to adoptive reuse. By using sites that previously has difficult memories in the past, it can reduce the cost of construct the building from the scratch and also represent turning difficult memories into the hopeful future. Missle Silo Homes are the great example of adoptive reuse of difficult memories. Missle Silo Homes are the homes made out of Missle silo back in the cold war. During cold war, people built these Silos to protect themselves from possible nuclear war. Now, a number of relics from the Cold War have been converted into homes and other purposes, from storage to an astronomical observatory. Silo home provides pristine mountain property with panoramic view in combination with the ultimate level of security and privacy. It features a small runway, hangar and spacious living area on the surface. Below ground, the former launch control center has been converted into a two-level residence. The characteristics of these Missle Silo homes are gigantic spiral staircase in the middle. It’s almost like they are in the “star
wars” movie. The homes were originally built out of fear, a fear of nuclear attack, a fear that people can lose everything in just one second. Now, it is serving its role as protection place, a place where people can feel safe and comfortable. These contrast between past and present is interesting, because Silo Homes not only serve as a grief place, but reflects hopeful future as well. From here, these are all dummy texts. So, after all. Grief needs space. Why do people make a building about difficult memories? Because, first, space where they can remember the event. People also needs space to honor the braves where they can remember the past: space where people can be educated about the event. Destruction in Art. Now, let’s first get in the examples in art world. There are many art forms that griefs the past memories. However, I want to point out very obvious example of expressing difficult memories. “Zang Tumb Tumb”(usually referred to as “Zang Tumb Tuuum”) is a sound poem and concrete poem written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, an Italian futurist. It appeared in excerpts in journals between 1912 and 1914, when it was published as an artist’s book in Milan. It is an account of the Battle of Adri-
Top. Construction period The gate ‘s view during construction period. Left. Gate way the Quearry Garden The gate is made with natural woods from surrounded forest.
airstrip right in front of the home.“The home is a super structure,” said Mike Franklin, one of the three Sotheby agents that hold the listing. “You fly in, park your airplane, go into the house and into this closet. You go down the stairs and you come to a blast-proof, 2,000-pound steel door and you’re in the command center.”While the home above contains 2,000-square-feet of living space with bedroom and kitchen, the main living area — about 3,000-square-feet — is within the command center, some 40 feet below ground. The top level of the command center is the kitchen and living room, and the bottom lev-
els contain bedrooms and bathrooms. From the bottom level and through a set of steel doors, you can access the 185-foot deep silo where the Atlas F missile was kept. From the photos, some of the living areas look perfectly normal — if you ignore the lack of visibility to the outside.Franklin explains that there are “windows” underground with lighting to mimic outdoor light but what he thinks the truly unusual thing about the home is the lack of noise. “It’s so quiet in there,” Franklin said. “It’s really bizarre.”If you like the quiet — and perhaps don’t mind living underground — the home
has many of the features any luxury home would have: a marble-tiled Jacuzzi shower, enormous master suite and gourmet kitchen. The property includes a paved FAA-approved airstrip, with room for expansion, and 19 acres. The surrounding land is subdivided and also available for sale. The unusual property has received quite bit of press as well as interest. Franklin says the most unusual interested buyer came from someone looking to use it as the set for a reality TV show. The Missle Silo homes were originally built out of fear, a fear of nuclear attack; the
fear that people can lose everything in just one second. Now, they serve as places where people can feel safe and comfortable. The contrast between their functionality reflects the transformation of difficult memories into a hopeful future. Notes: 1 Michel Foucault, Andere Räume, typescript of a paper given at the Cercle d’études architecturales, Paris, March 14, 1967, published in: German in Karlheinz Barck Aithesis. Wahrnehmung heute oder Perspektiven einer anderen Ästhetik, Leipzig, 1990, pp. 34-46, esp. p. 38f. 2 House of the Week: Missle Silo Home|Zillow Blog - Real Estate Market Stats, Celebrity Real Estate, and Zillow News http://www.zillow.com/blog/2011-12-16/houseof-the-week-missile-silo-home/ 3 The Vietnam Memorial Wall Page http://thewall-usa.com/ 4 11 Homes Made Out of the Darndest Things, from Treehouse to Missle Silos. May 13. 2009, Brian Clark Howard. 5 Jewish Museum Berlin http://www.jmberlin.de/main/EN/04-About-TheMuseum/00-about-the-museum.php
1 Previous Page Left Missle Silo Home Hallway Detail picture of spacious hallway in the Missle Silo Home. 2 Left Missle Silo Home Drawing Missle Silo home elevation and the top view of living room area. 3 Top Missle Silo Home Two Hallway Missle Silo home basement where the two hallways meet.
Int Interventions
AR Adaptive Reuse
COLOPHONE EDITOR/DESIGNER Ye s e u l O h WINTER RISD INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE CLASS Maya Marx, Ernesto Aparicio PRINTED in RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN P R I N T E D D AT E FEB. 07. 2010 COPYRIGHTS RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN I N T E R I O R A R C H I T E C T U R E D E PA R T M E N T
A D A P T I V E R E U S E A N D D I F F I C U LT M E M O R I E S Memories of abuse, isolation, trauma, destruction, neglect, and failure, linger in the physical ruins of our shared environment. They also charge the landscape, all the while, remaining invisible to the unacquainted eye. How might the art of adaptive reuse engage difficult memories contained on site? How might architectural intervention sustain cultural remembrance, affirmation, transformation, or reconciliation?
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