------
EXPLORATION OFA GENERATIVE PROCESS : Recognition, Transformation, and Projection
by Carlos Fernandez
Master of Science in Structural Engineering,
Columbia University, New York, New York, May 1983
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering,
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, June 1982
Submitted to the Department of Architecture in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of Master of Architecture at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
June, 1990
A utho r........................................
Carlos Fernandez?
Department of Architecture
March'30, 1990
Certified by................
Thomas RChastain, thesis advisor,
Assistant Professor of Architecture
DE
Accepted by ........................
William L.Porter, Chairman,
7
Department Committee for Graduate Studies
0 Carlos Femandez, 1990, All rights reserved
The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to
distribute publicly copies of this thesis document inwhole or inpart
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Acknowledgements
En memoria de mi Viejo quien continua siendo mi inspiracion
para mejorar y ilegar.
Ramon Fernandez
May 10, 1927-September 8, 1983.
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Exploration of a Generative Process: Recognition, Transformation, and Projection
by Carlos Fernandez
Submitted to the Department of Architecture on
March 30, 1990 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Architecture
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This work explores the interelationship of the explicit and the
implicit in an generative process.
References are presented to articulate the relationship
between architectural intentions and the construction of the
spatial structure that supports them.
This thesis explores the generative process for
a Civic Center for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The experience of space and light replaces the
understanding of our environment as a collection of objects
in the landscape, and supports the need of our human
experience for a sense of connection with a system greater
than itself. It recognizes life as a continuous flow of
experiences, spatial ones among them.
Thesis Advisor: Thomas R.Chastain
Assistant Professor of Architecture
Title:
4
I
Preface
The fundamental questions are What isthe human
perception of space ? How is it defined ? What affects it ?
This work is not an effort to produce a chronological
development of this understanding, but rather it begins with a
basic assumption:
A premise that our perception and experience of
space istied to the understanding of the physical
world.
Specifically, the discussion and exploration of this work will
consider four fundamental issues:
First, it considers the experience of the physical world within a
context defined by the continuity of space and light. This
context isthe subject for transformation and intervention.
Second, it formulates a frame of exploration which depends
upon a sense of connection and interelationship with a
spatial system greater than itself.
Third, it pursues the continuous flow of spatial experiences.
Fourth, the Continuity of spatial experience isbased on a
sense of simultaneity defined, in this work, as a series of
simultaneous spatial systems with differing speeds of human
perception.
A discussion of a Generative Process may be conducted in
a number of ways. For this work, it isconducted through a
process of categorizing only as a convenient step to discuss
the complexity of design.
Actions are recognized along a Level of Association
defined by Scale, Conceptual, Organization Systems, and
Physical Vocabulary issues.
Simultaneously, the use of References, as precedent,
defines the various Spatial Structures. Recognition and
understanding of these provide the background information
for their possible transformation under different conditions,
e.g. different Conceptual, Organization, or Physical
Vocabulary conditions.
-
This exercise will explore the generative process for a
Civic Center for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The choice of Civic uses allows for a discussion which
considers issues of Public Benefit, Group Image, Meaning of
Community, Organization Systems across various scales, and
new uses for the Assemblage of traditional elements.
Cambridgeport, Massachusetts
The task at hand isto consider a process which avoids
designing the physical setting of large institutions as a matter
of imposing a monumental form on a multitude of unwilling
users.
Table of Contents
Abstract
Preface
i.
Declaration ......... General Intent
ii.
Declaration ......... Initial Recognition
iii.
Declaration ......... Level of Intervention (sizes)
from :
through:
to :
iv.
Level of the City
Level of the Tissue
Level of the Support (building)
Level of the Unit
Declaration ......... References
Spatial Language
v.
Design
Process of Conceptualizing:
Embodyment of an Idea -Civic Center
from : Language (Analytical)
to : Spatial Language ( 3-D)
Process of Form Exploration:
Tissue
from :
Support
through:
Unit
with:
10
128
vi.
Declaration ......... A Projection for a Civic Center
from :
through:
with:
to :
vii.
Recognition
Civic Aspirations
New Criteria and Values
Define an Infrastructure for an
Open Future of Options and
Opportunities.
Declaration ......... MIT Formal Therapy
InGeneral
from:
to :
basis for perception
nature of place
Generative Process
from :
through:
with:
to :
230
basis for conceptual generation
basis for organization
basis for physical vocabulary
define the process of design as
the parallel endeavor that
articulates a relation of concept
to principle.
242
294
viii.
Addenda
A:
B:
C:
D:
E:
Proposed Developement:
University Park at MIT
Recollections
The American Heritage Dictionary
of the English Language.
Process of Conceptualizing
Prototype for Exploration
ix.
Afterword
310
x.
Bibliography
312
Declaration ...General Intent
-
_00MOMMIL-
The general intent of this work isto explore and understand,
through observation and projection, some aspects that
support design. The set of integral aspects chosen for this
exploration only comprise a part of the totality of design.
The goal isto understand a process which avoids designing
the physical setting of a large institution by imposing a
monumental form on a multitude of unwilling users.
The intent isto achieve an identifiable character from the
interaction between observer and observed.
This interaction results from decisions regarding organization
whose physical form and its spatial resultant, territory, support
and reinforce particular range of uses.
This work isan exploration into the collective nature of the environment and the form of a community. An Urban society is
a dynamic field of interrelated forces. Any order introduced
within the pattern of forces contributes to a state of
equilibrium, an equilibrium which will change in character
with time.
Forms and their control of territories, and the observer and his
associations to these territories are examined to develop a
context for the study of generative principles as organizers of
our physical world.
The Site chosen for this projection is known as University Park
at MIT. The Site isbounded by Massachusetts Avenue to its
north, Brookline Street to its west, Pacific Street to its south,
and Purrington Street to its east. The Site represents
availability of land to sufficiently support the size of this
projected Civic development. The Social benefit of such
development may be summarized to include:
For the Level of the city:
1. Support Massachusetts Avenue as the primary
transport artery for the city.
2. Set up a first step for the extension to the river,
to reinforce its public access and to claim
the Charles River Basin for public use.
3. Recognize and support the existing
Cambridgeport structure for public uses.
4. Public space to prevail over those of private
use.
5. Provide an alternative social center to
complement the present condition in which
various groups control access to the principal
social institution.
6. Restore the architectural emphasis in the city
of Cambridge to those buildings of Civic
importance; to complement the present
emphasis towards buildings of economic
importance.
For the level of the Tissue, a large number of discrete
architectural interventions come together into a larger whole
to fill the blank spots in the urban structure. The larger whole
explores the relationship between the site, movement
systems, and collective nodes of the city.
To begin to understand the site as a collective node of the
city and to support spatial continuity, the existing vehicular
and pedestrian systems are recognized and intensify to set up
territorial exchanges between the Civic Center and the
residential and industrial context.
The basic intentions for the level of the tissue are as follows :
1. Intensify the pedestrain system defined by the open
green spaces of Cambridgeport with the Civic
Center site as a positive urban element.
2. Re-route vehicular traffic to secure a site adequate
for major public facilities and to make these public
and pedestrian continuities possible.
3. Restore the South West edge of the site to its proper
degree of definition to support industrial and
residential uses.
4. Establish the pedestrian norm as a three dimensional
territory.
5. Establish the vehicular norm as the single-sided
ground plane.
The Civic Center will not just be a message carrier and a
facility for information exchange, e.g. walls become walls on
which information flashes, but rather at a regional scale it
becomes a symbol of Civic Identity and City Image. The
Civic Center becomes an articulator of "Civic aspirations"
Cambridgeport, Massachusetts
and a potent spatial organizer of social reality. At a local
scale, the physical setting supports a multitude of uses and
affirms a strong sense of place which supports our sense of
personal identity. Traditional ways of Spatial Organization
define the physical world to support an infrastructure for an
open future of options and opportunities.
Any interaction with or intervention in a place speaks of
meaning. The search for meaning for any existence, physcial
or experiential, lies in a shared and cultural attitude towards
what surrounds us. The story of emotion isthe story of three dimensional space. The ritual of a site isdefined as the process
of bringing a place into a different existence. It is a transformation of existing relationships.
Orientation in space isthe framework of cognition, it isa
source of emotional security. Deeper levels of meaning arise
from fundamental feelings of security and identity.
The city government and citizens of Cambridge aspire, for the
level of the city, independence of the city image, sense, and
experience from Harvard University and MIT. There ismore to
the city than its prestigious institutions. Presently the sense of
the city isdominated by the two socio-political and
economic magnets and their spheres of influence.
Harvard University currently dominates the area bounded by
Putnam Avenue, to Western Avenue, to the Charles River, to
Fresh Pond Parkway, to Huron Avenue, to Concord Avenue,
to Massachusetts Avenue, to Everett, Hammond, and
Museum Streets, to Francis Avenue, to Summer , Prescot, and
back to Massachusetts and Putnam Avenues.
MIT's sphere of influence extends from Commercial Avenue,
to Binney, Portland, Harvard, Windsor, Landsdowne, and
Sidney Streets, to the Charles River and back to the
Longsfellow Bridge.
Cambridgeport, which lies physically between the two
spheres of influence, currently suffers from the greatest
pressure from institutional expansion. East and North
Cambridge define the North and West edges of the city.
For the level of the City, the intentions are to do away with
large continuous areas of exclusion tolerating only small inequalities of access between different groups to create the
new city identity from a purposeful exchange between
systems of organization.
The transportation structure isa nodal organization anchored
by Massachusetts Avenue connecting the city nodes,
Harvard, Central, Porter, and Kendall Squares.
For the level of the tissue, the intentions pursue an understanding of continuous flow between territories to do away
with a subdivided and compartmentalized structure. The
intent isto pursue a physical continuity achieved from a field
organization of the collective parts of the Civic Center. The
open spaces as collective parts, define the territories and
movement around it. Such organization allows for visual continuity and continuity of light providing for a Civic Center as
an urban refuge that explores the impact of perception on
three dimensional spatial awareness.
Space and illusion as "virtual space" become simultaneous
layers of understanding. The open space for each territory is
to be interpreted in a different way allowing for a range of
meanings and association.
.O--WL~llsai.g.
.
Declaration ... Initial Recognition
The projection for this exploration proposes a Civic Center for
the site known as University Park. This exercise includes an
understanding of the levels of the tissue, support, and unit.
The goal isto explore a Civic Center where people can
interact directly and where there isa balance between a
public order and private expression. Such balance pursues
an alternative to the institutional complete and singular
collective buildings we have experienced and have
accepted as the contemporary norm. Presently, MIT and
Harvard Universities are the symbols which shape our sense of
the City of Cambridge. The attempt isto consider a Civic
Center to complement our present sense of the city and also
to begin to support a more inclusive sense towards its
residents. A Civic Center as a synopsis of the City of
Cambridge.
The selection of Civic uses isa response to restore the present
lack of balance between the institutional and the public/
collective in this city. This selection isto begin to explore alternatives to relieve the residential sections of the city from the
existing economic pressures experienced from the desire and
need for institutional expansion.
The Civic Center isto reinforce the " place " of Cambridge
whose identity concerns almost everyone and whose
symbolic force isthat of an inclusive city. The City's force
assumes equal importance to its institutional tradition.
The ritual of a site isthe exploration to bring this place, a Civic
Center, into existence. The ritual isto pursue how a place
gets its meaning and to articulate its story as the story of
emotion or the story of three dimensional space.
A Civic Center to manage the sense of a place for public
purpose and social benefit.
Level of the Support and Unit
Level of the City
Level of the Tissue
Declaration ... Level of Intervention
Architecture isthe product of the relationships between
levels, each autonomous with its own principles and each in
support of the next level of intervention. The basis for the
understanding of existing contexts and for projection is
organized according to particular levels or sizes of
intervention. They include:
The Level of the City includes major transportation arteries,
major public functions and facilities, and the designation of
density and use of urban areas.
The Level of the Tissue isthat intervention between the level of
the city and the level of the support. It isthat scale where a
number of discrete architectural decisions come together
into a larger whole and are integrated with public collective
and movement to define areas in the urban structure.
Interventions at this level are based on intentions related to
relationship between the site, movement, and the major
collective nodes of the city.
The Level of the Support isclearly defined by the boundaries
of the site. The Level of the Unit isdefined by the boundaries
of the building, and the Levels of the Room and Personal
completes the architectural range of sizes.
The amorphous and additive character of all new towns-their heterogeneous monotomy-is the immediate result
of the complete absence of right-size.
Those urban functions which were not
forgotten were compartmentalized.
The actual building elements were
subsequently arranged academically
according to a trivial habit, and the
open space between them isso casually articulated and emptied of every
civic meaning that they loom up like
oversized objects, pitilessly hard and
angular, in a void. Within the tyrannicol periphery of such objects there is
no room for emotion; nor isthere in
the resulting emptiness between such
objects. Emptiness has no room for
anything but more emptiness. All
urban ingredients curdle, all urban
colours clash. Just planned wasteland.
-Aldo van Eyck
The categorizing of levels of intervention isa convenient way
to focus on particular issues. The experience of a place isnot
so neatly compartmentalized, thus each level is in transformation to develop the intrinsic properties of the next one. This
transformation results in the continuity of experience of a
place through simultaneity of association with the different
sizes present in our physical environment.
For this design exploration, the Level of the City recognizes
intentions for the Civic Center location. The operating spatial
systems extend from the regional size to the level of the Tissue
and the spatial exchange between these.
The Level of the Tissue transforms existing conditions in
Cambridgeport to build intentions which support the Civic
Center Institution. Here a transformation isnecessary to
move from the residential or industrial sphere that exists to
one in which the form of a community can be explored. The
operating spatial systems for this level are related to
movement and collective spaces and the spatial exchange
between the systems at the Levels of the Support and the
Unit.
The Level of the Support builds upon intentions regarding
Massachusetts Avenue, the implied public direction in
Cambridgeport, and the site edges.
The Level of the Unit recognizes intentions related to the
spatial exchange between the system of site access and the
unit.
--1aSAM
1
'l shall begin with a brief clarification of concepts.
First, the meaning of analysis. The term ismost
frequently applied to chemical analysis. A
certain compound, for example, iswidely sold
because of its excellent effects. The
manufacturer's commercial success arouses the
curiosity of other manufacturers and they send a
sample of the product to a chemist for analysis.
He must proceed methodically in order to break
the product into its ingredients. To solve the
riddle. Inanother case a food or beverage is
harmful to the health. Again the chemist iscalled
into disclose the harmful ingredients. Inboth
cases the given isa whole consisting of various
unknown parts; the problem isto find the
ingredients. In our business the motives for
analysis are naturally different. We do not
undertake analyses of works because we want to
copy them or because we suspect them. We
investigate the methods by which another has
created his work, in order to set ourselves in
motion. This approach should save us from
regarding a work of art as something rigid,
something fixed and unchanging. Exercises of this
kind will guard us against creeping up to a
finished product hoping to pick off what ismost
striking, and to make off with it... We are artists,
practical croftmen, and it isonly that in this
discussion we should give priority to matters of
form. But we should not forget that before the
formal beginning, or to put it more simply, before
the first line isdrawn, there lies a whole prehistory:
not only man's longing, his desire to express
himself, his outward need, but also a general
state of mind which derives him from inside to
manifest his spirit in one place or another. I
emphasize this point to avoid the misconception
that a work consists of only form. But what must
be stressed even more at this point isthat the
most exact scientific knowledge of nature, of
plants, animals, the earth, and its history, or of the
stars, isof no use to us unless we have acquire the
necessary equipment for representing it; that the
most penetrating understanding of the way these
things work together in the universe isuseless to us
unless we are equipped.. .with the appropriate
forms; that the profoundest mind, the most
beautiful soul, are of no use to us unless we have
the corresponding forms at hand. Here we must
forget about the isolated stroke of luck which
may enable the dilettante just once to produce a
successful work which puts the professional to
shome. After these general preliminaries. I shall
begin where form has to begin; with the point
that sets itself in motion.
Paul Klee,
The concept of analysis....
Declaration ...
References
Use of Reference Examples
1.
Recognition and understanding of spatial archtypes
and their transformation under different conditions
2.
Understanding of the physical and spatial structure and
identity of any context to formulate a range of
possibilities for projection in any location
3.
Identification of Generative Principles for evaluation
4.
To develop a way to translate the observation of
desirable qualities in a context into a projection of
these into a design
5.
To bridge the gap between analytical thought of any
experience and the simultaneity of design
Level of the City: Split, Yugoslavia
Split, Yugoslavia
Geographic Location
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Split, Yugoslavia
Recollections
...feels like a known place... very much at ease with
the physical surroundings although they are quite
different in its building elements from our daily
experience. Curiosity and fine weather bring us to
walk through the city, I smile constantly and continue to walk for my entire stay. Day by day, I begin
to understand the city and its people.
There isno limit to where we go but the
understanding of the different parts of the city
begins to unveil. As I walk, I begin to expect where
the street cafes can be found for a quick refreshment. I sense where wet laundry isto be hung
before I walk by it, I begin to understand where
children will be playing before I hear their
voices... feels like a known place...
Walking isno longer a link between two points, it is
beyond a right or left turn. It becomes a complete
experience of a place. A place where one
anticipates, where one is assured and confirmed.
The busy streets set up the stage for the sand lots
where children play, the places for afternoon
walking and looking begin to explain the private
corners of the city. One part is not seperate from
the others, but rather it isalways experienced as
part of the whole... a whole which is with
you... always understood.
I try to remember the reaction of other international
INDESEM '88 participants visiting Split as I was. I
remember their smiles, but I remember them
lacking the enthusiasm for Split which I felt. Was
Split taken for granted?.
What do I recall from Split...? People
everywhere... not tourists as April was too early for
the season, but residents of the City of Split
everywhere. Walking, talking, sitting, looking...
I recall the sense of the place. A corner where
good "burek" was found, a set of steps where one
could sit and look, a large open area where the
highest density of cafes were located. All different
parts of the whole, all needed to understand the
place called Split.
The experience of Split became the experience of
a balance between individual identification and a
collective understanding. Looking back, the
overpowering experience of the Old City was one
of identity and character.. there isno other Split.
Split, Yugoalavia-April 1989
Level of the Tissue: Cambridgeport, Massachusetts
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movement system.
The public direction in Cambridgeport defines the banding of
territories (approximately 200 feet wide) extending from
Massachusetts Avenue to the Charles River Basin. These
bands are subdivided by East-West movement (pedestrian
and vehicular) into city blocks. The relative independence of
the city blocks width within any banding in relation to its
adjacencies, defines the spatial understanding of Movement
Branching about the collective space. Branching occurs as
the result of lateral displacements between East-West
movement locations for adjacent bands.
Cambridgeport: Relationship Between Public Movement and Collective Element 2
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association of the collective space along a major transport
artery.
The Interruption of the Public Direction inCambridgeport
along the Charles River Basin sets up the understanding of
the normal public artery by allowing the extention of this
collective territory beyond the banding structure of the
Tissue.
Cambridgeport: Relationship Between Public Movement and Collective Element 3
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collective.
This example isbounded by major public directions in both
north to south and east to west movement. The collective
element isisolated from the adjacent structure by a circular
organization of privacies.
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Cambridgeport: Relationship Between Public Movement and Site for Projection
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project the initial intentions regarding issues associated with
the Level of the Tissue.
The Collective Element 1,Movement Branching, provides for
the location of the Projection Site's major collective space
and its size.
The Collective Element 2, interruption of the Public Direction
along a major transport artery, provides for the carving out of
sufficient land for Civic Use development and the recognition
of the major public way, Massachusetts Avenue.
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Spatial Structure Construction
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demarcations
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Spatial Structure Construction
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spaces) and Object (meeting hall)
.
Construction of Spatial relationships for
Support Territory: Privacy direction
and the construction of a territorial
corner
Carving of Object
Support and Object
Claudio Caveri and Eduardo Ellis:
Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Fatima, Matinez, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina
IGLESIA DE NUESTRA SENORA DE AIAIMA, /artinez, /'oincia de /f
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6. 7. 9. Acceso al atrio y entrada principal;
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Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Fatima, Matinez, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Spatial Structure Construction
SpatialArchtype: Church and Cloister
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Spatial Structure Transformation of Archtype to
consider urban site
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Spatial Construction of Privacies in
relation to movement
101
Aldo VanEyck: Addition to the Rietveld House, Holland
102
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Aldo VanEyck : Addition to the Rietveld House, Holland
Spatial Structure Construction
104
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Partial Containment (projected)
Opening up of partial containment
(rotation of leg) and its containment
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Association of spatial rotation
through the construct of movement
from the original house to the
addition and from the addition to
the outside as legs of the triangle
which constructs the angle of
rotation
105
Frank Lloyd Wright: Taliesen West, Scottsdale, Arizona
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Spatial Structure Construction
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Spatial Structure Construction:
1.Collective elements in relation to public
movement
2. Public territory, private residence, and
support territory in relation to public
movement
3. Territorial corner exchanges
109
Kenzo Tange: Communication Center, Kofu, Japan
Spatial Structure Construction
y;
Dimensional Construct
110
Spatial Structure for Form of Light
111
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Hans Scharoun :State Library, Berlin, Germany
Spatial Structure Construction
13
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112
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Dimensional and Sectional Spatial Structure Construct in relation to Public
movement (extension from focal programmatic territory: reference, etc).
Construction of relationships between the three dimensional collective
space and the multi-story territory.
Construct of the Form of Light.
I 13
Herman Hertzberger: Sint Joost Academy of Art Extension, Breda, Holland
114
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Herman Hertzberger: Sint Joost Academy of Art Extension, Breda, Holland
Spatial Structure Construction
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Dimensional and Sectional Spatial Structure Construct to achieve a
relationship between movement from outside to inside and the
reconnection back to the outside through the Form of Light and the
alternative street at the second level
117
Benisch & Partners: Luginsland Kindergarten, Sttutgart, Germany
44
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118
Spatial Structure Construction
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Spatial Structure Construct
1 19
Hans Hollein: Museum, Monchengladbach, Germany
Spatial Structure ( ?)
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123
Alvar Aalto: Library of Mount Angel, Benedictine College, Mount Angel, Oregon
Spatial Structure Construction
124
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Three dimensional space occurs at
exchange between the Field
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(fan topology)
125
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Maurice Smith: Own Residence, Harvard, Massachusetts
Spatial Structure Construction
Form of Light provides for the Spatial Exchange between the various directions
126
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127
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129
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Arlington
Sommerville
Watertown
Brighton
Boston
130
Indicates site for projection
131
Level of the Tissue: Cambridgeport
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Indicates site for projection
133
Civic Center Projection Site
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Civic Center Projection Site: Level of the Tissue Intentions
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Containment of Public Direction
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230
Declaration ... A Projection for a Civic Center
-~iI -L4E
I H AVE SEEN
-TE FUTm/e
AND IT qOES
231
The City of Cambridge Community Development
Department provides the following scenario:
The year is 1990, the City of Cambridge Massachusetts
embarks on the largest public project of this decade. The
goal isto pursue an understanding of its infrastructure for the
21st century. Until this time, its identity has been dominated
by the strengths of its cultural and scientific institutions.
Cambridge, as it looks to its future, aspires to an identity
which builds upon its history to pursue an innovative physical
structure to support and encourage the role of its citizens in its
future.
Today's urban life is supported by production, management,
and financial systems. It is anticipated that it will grow to include public communication, monitoring, and mass information. Technology may become in the 21st century the thread
that reinforces all modes of support for urban life. Advanced
information technology becomes the focus for exploration for
its physical implications within the infrastructure of the 21 st
century. The city government and citizens understand and
232
demand an approach which avoids the local, pragmatic,
and incremental responses typical of present planning
practices. They demand an approach to assimilate a set of
new criteria and values. Instead of merely accepting
technological innovations, users aspire for future municipal
planning to avoid the conflict between tradition and
innovation. Users aspire for an understanding of the
possibilities for collaboration and exchange between all
modes supporting urban life, including advanced information
technology. Users aspire to match technological ingenuity
with sensory purposes based on the understanding that
advances in science and technology make for genuine
progress only when they are designed to satisfy social
purposes. Advanced technologies are the new elements to
reinforce traditional activities, they do not substitute them, but
rather reinforce the open field of opportunities for the future.
The City recognizes the changing industrialized world will receive a new era of development, a transition from an
industrial economy to a post-industrial or information
economy. It is becoming apparent that in this new stage an
233
enormous increase in the rate of transmission and processing
of information will occur. Inthe past, the physical impact of
similar increases on cities has been substantial as exemplified
by the automobile and previously the electric power and the
railroad. Thus the Civic Center isthe first attempt to pursue an
understanding of the profound impact of electronic
information on Cambridge and today's cities.
The information revolution, as an extension of our senses and
our mind, will affect our patterns of working and living. Of
interest isthe spatial recomposition at the range of levels from
the City through the level of the person associated with this
revolution. The consideration isthe relation between technological development and spatial processes.
A Civic Center allows for a broader exploration of the impact
of new technologies on spatial systems from the sense of a
region to the sensations of everyday life.
The City and its citizens identify the fundamental issues involved. They include, a search for the ways activities and
experiences will be changed through the information revolution, the transformation of the balance of public and private
234
spaces, and the change in the urban consciousness and
identity.
An objective isto open up new possibilities of spatial organization and to avoid the invasion of the Civic Sector with the
fragmentary replacement of abandoned public monuments
with the new electronic elements.
The information revolution and the technology question can
not be constructued in terms of discrete and seperate technological tools which can be used or abused. The question is
posed in terms of the coexistence of this new element and its
system with existing social and spatial systems to constitute
the urban structure for the 21st century.
The interest isthe nature of the new information system, as a
positive new consideration, and its impact on urban systems
in particular the urban spatial structure.
The regional profile of the information revolution isan affirmation of mobility presenting a tendency towards the
urbanization of society. In this respect, the understanding of
the physical world as an ongoing experience of the continuity
235
of space and light with optional discontinuities as
confinements shares with this profile of the information
revolution. The norm of motion as a positive experience in our
world, as Castells stated, "... (is)an emergence of a space of
flows substituting for a space of places whose meaning is
largely determine by their position in a network of
exchanges."
The City recognizes the conflict between the weight of
existing infrastructures and the projected possibilitiy for the
inclusion of technical developements. The citizens of
Cambridge aspire to prevent a fragmented society achieved
through a discrete articulation of the information technology.
Such discrete articulation results if the level of intervention is
reserved to only intelligent households which only apply at
the size or level of the unit. The result of such action would be
the erosion of the public sphere. This approach to construct
discrete discontinuities does not support the "space of flows"
inherent in the new information technology and inherent of
the experience of space as an ongoing continuity.
The enhanced understanding of municipal planning incorpo236
rates the information system as an important new factor in its
organization. For a Civic Center, which assumes primal importance as a symbol of the identity for the regional
experience of this city, its generation isnot attained from a
substitution of one monument with a new one. It is generated
from a simultaneous layering of organization systems, some
which have been traditional considerations, others which
extend to incorporate the advanced information
technologies. All pursue the elusive notion of the future for
the City of Cambridge; a future where means of message
exchange and information handling are dramatically
evolving to present a fundamental challenge for the
understanding of how this evolution will alter and affect
concepts of place and time. Advanced information technologies will greatly influence the rate that we gain
knowledge from perception by making information more
readily available. The chanllenge becomes an exploration
for a method of work to understand all interventions as an
affirmation of social behaviour as influenced by our
interaction with the physical environment. Social behaviour is
237
spatially defined, the deepest meaning of any place is its
sense of connection to human life. The consideration of the
future and its capacity to affect concepts of space and time
becomes a consideration of how these new elements can
reinforce our perception of the physical world. Inthe past,
municipal planning has often been a matter of imposing a
monumental form on a multitude of unwilling users.
Infrastructure speaks of a regional scale and introduces the
notions of identity and character. The search evolves to
understand how the elements of the infrastructure for the 21 st
century affect our social behavour which is local and spatial.
The Civic Center as a symbol of an identity must directly
consider this question, as it isboth the identity and the local
intervention into existing physical, social political and
economic relationships.
Advanced information technologies will define the "virtual
space" as that extension of where you are, that extension of
your spatial understanding. It will enhanced the transfer of
knowledge by perception.
238
The mechanics for our perception of space rely on everything
moving but at different rates of speed generating an active
awareness that more accurately fixes one in space and
makes the world around more three dimensional.
The experience of space isthe experience of movement. The
elusive notion of the future enhances our movement beyond
our physical mode by projecting us elsewhere. This
opportunity isto reinforce the deepest meaning of any place
by reinforcing its sense of connection to human life.
Information systems have become an environmental dimension, the physical boundaries of a traditional place will always
be there. The attempt isto understand the advanced
information technologies not as a perforating, dissolving, and
substitutional phenomenon for physical boundaries but rather
as an additional layer of collaboration to define our physical
world and a new organization system. The understanding of
the new advanced information system as a substitutional
phenomenon of the traditional place reduces the system and
its boundaries to a mere attribute of the environment as
opposed to an organizer of the environment. It reduces the
new system to a list of new elements which replaces the
traditional list of other elements.
239
The general intent for a projection for a Civic Center can be
summarized as follows:
The instanteneous channels of the information and communications networks can overcome geographic and locational
limits. The objective isto open up new possibilities of organization and spatial flexibility to construct an unique space time
which transcends locational and chronometric constraints.
The fundamental change isthe creation of a new
(electronic) spatial and temporal order. The electronic
network geography is mapped on "abstract" space.
For the level of the city, which includes major transportation
arteries, major public functions and facilities, and the global
designation of density and use, the new channels of information and communication networks continue, reinforce, and
intensify the existing ongoing movement achieved from major
trasportation arteries. The new network allows for movement
through the "abstract" space as an intensification of physical
movement. It generates opportunities to associate with the
urban structure both physically with ongoing movement or
abstractly through a new electronic order. Our awareness, as
240
urban association, of a range of levels isreinforced by our
enhanced direct relation with the urban structure through
new information and communication networks. For this level
of intervention, the Civic Center aknowledges the new technology as a system of continuity. A system which continues,
reinforces, and intensifies the spatial continuity at the level of
the city. It is not an " either/or " alternative to our experience
of the ongoing field of space and light, but rather isa
presence which isoptional, additive in relation to the spatial
continuity, and self-stable.
The form of exchange between the major transportation and
the new technology systems recognizes the nature and level
of intervention.
The Form of the city's access to the abstract space of the
new technology directly restores access to different groups.
The form of exchange between transportation and the new
technology isthe form of access to the abstract space.
241
242
Declaration ... MIT Formal Therapy
243
InGeneral
Scientific Perspective:
Precise, Measured
Bird's Eye View: Non-participatory
Simultaneity
244
The nature of place speaks of explicit recognitions as well as
implicit considerations. The explicit articulates the attributes
associated with the physical definitions, the implicit speaks of
the story of a place as the story of the ongoing experience of
space and light. They reflect the tranformation of light to
define our associations.
The explicit articulates the "how", the implicit articulates the
why".
Human perception and experience of space are active and
creative, we are involved screening and structuring what we
perceive with our senses. A Spatial component isinvolved in
all experiences. That which is known isdone so with a spatial
reference, dimension, or anchor. Thus the perception of
space is relevant to an unity of the internal and the
environment.
"Architecture isthe first
manifestation of man creating his own
universe, creating it in the image of
nature"
-LeCorbusier
"... as a result of that new device-the
reinforced concrete frame which
made solid structural walls superfluousthe glass partition cult became rife.
Consequently, many a transparent
overall space in which it stood more or
less intact, failed to provide any sort of
visual termination, implying that there
was no "space"in the first place, and
hence nothing which required keeping intact. Space simply collapsed in
that blind craving for openess. Not
only gravity was to be done away
with, but the horizon as well.
-Herman Hertzberger
Space inside was our first manisfestation of creating our
universe, this in response to the need for protection against
external forces.
245
Protection was achieved through the use of isolating and
complete forms which clearly seperated the Space inside
from the adjacent hostile territories.
The necessity to think early on in terms of complete forms,
defined Space Inside as an Object seperate from the
surrounding continuity of the physical world. Thus Space
Inside as Object and Object as pattern became the rule.
Often what remains from the fragmentation of functions into
seperate units isthe thinking of Space as a collection of
Objects in the landscape.
Today, we realized the dominance of space and movement
and the understanding of Solid as the product of movement
in space.
Social changes and technical innovations affirm the evolution
from the concept of Solid as dominant association, to the
acceptance of space as dominating.
Our understanding of Solid evolves to an understanding
based on the perception of its capacity to block light directly.
246
In order to be at home in the universe
man tends to fashion it in his own image, accommodate it to his own dimension. Constructed enclosure as
such was indeed seldom sufficient, for
there was always the limitless exterior
beyond-the incomprehensible, intangible, and unpredictable-harassing his
right composure, shaking whatever
"groundof certainty", to use Rikwert's
phrase, he was able to find. So his
cities, villages and houses-even his
baskets-were persuaded by means of
symbolic form and complex ritual to
contain within their measurable confines that which exists beyond and is
inmeasurable: to represent it symbolically. The artifact, whether small or
large, basket or city, was identified
with the universe or with the power or
deity representing the cosmic order. It
thus became a "habitable"place,
comprehensible from corner to corner.
-Aldo van Eyck
This thesis discusses and explores four fundamental issues.
First, it pursues the difference between the understanding of
the built environment as a collection of solids and its
understanding as the ongoing experience of space and
light.
Second, it accepts and embraces a frame of exploration
which understands the importance for achieving aestehtic
satisfaction from a sense of connection with a system greater
than oneself, the more nearly universal the system the deeper
the satisfaction.
Third, it recognizes that life isa continuous flow of
experiences. Each moment ispreceded by a previous
experience only to become the harbinger of future ones.
Movement through space creates the continuity of
experience, thus the organization of movement systems
defines the context inwhich to experience the Go and the
Stop.
Four, the understanding of Simultaneity as the continuity of
spatial experiences achieved from of a series of movement
systems based on different rates of speed and different
Paul Klee diagrams
247
modes of movement, each contributing its part to the total
experience of our physical environment. The freedom of
simultaneity isthe freedom to dissolve rigid form. Rigid form,
defined in this work, as form possesing singular associations.
A basic design goal isto articulate perception sequences
shared by people to develop a group image from shared
experiences and give a sense of order where individual
freedom and option ispossible.
The sensory qualities of the built environment are the look,
sound, smell, and feel of place. Two types of desirable places
are those which are the result of a process of slow development informed by constraints of a natural condition that have
been enriched by continuous habitation and reformation;
and those places where the design was closely fitted to the
requirements of the persons who were to use them and who
had some power to affect the outcome.
The way we respond to the built environment istied to the
specific qualities of the place. Our response isterritorial, it is
248
no matter how absorbing the elaboration
down to the smallest part may be, the essence of
the larger whole remains as powerful as ever. The
whole radiates the calm of an equilibrium which
encompasses an extraordinary intricacy of form
and space in one single image ... Orphange in
Nagete by Aldo van Eyck.
-Herman Hertzberger
"True architecture.. .cannot be broken up into
different pieces, each of which isautonomous
and exists alone. A fragment of architecture will
be no more than an odd, mutilated object that
ceases to exist when it isremoved from the one
place where it belongs.'
-Juan Gris
"The phenomena of the environment do not exist
as seperate elements but are experienced in
relationship to each other."
-Christian Norberg-Schultz
"Structure, in its basic sense, isthe created unity
of the ports and joints of entities. It is a pattern of
dynamic cohesion in which noun and verb, form
and to form, are coexistent and interchangeable,
of interacting forces perceived as a single spatiotemporal entity.'
-Gyorgy kepes
spatially defined and changes according to place.
Our association depends on the mutual recognition of
boundaries.
A place can be evaluated by finding out how clearly its
territories are marked to support the desired range of uses,
and how well users understand and agree on their meanings.
A discussion of Spatial evaluation assumes the fundamental
assumption that the experience of Place depends on its
spatial structure. The concept of Structure assumes that
architectural intentions can be constructed.
Thus, Structure isdefined as a general and abstract concept
which refers to a system of principles or arrangements
destined to cope with forces at work.
Construction isdefined as the physical realization of a
principle which may be carried out in a number of ways
depending on the elements used. The visual result, when a
structural concept finds its implementation through
construction, will affect us through certain expressive qualities
Hans Scharoun, Conceptual Watercolor
"As one moves in space everything
moves but at a different rate of speed
generating an active awareness that
more accurately fixes one in space and
makes the world around become much
more three dimensional."
-James Gibson
249
which clearly have to do with the play of forces and the
corresponding arrangement of parts.
The exploration of the generative process for a Civic Center
for the City of Cambridge begins from the recognition of
existing spatial structures regarding public direction, and
collective nodes. An exploration into the Form of the
Community recognizes the existing conditions to identify the
range of possible transformations.
Human action defines our experience. A recognition that
the forces which affect our experience exist in some order
defines the manner in which we observe the built
environment.
The Form of the Community istied to the existing spatial
structure because it provides for the foundation of our
association with the place called Cambridge.
Our movement and projection grounds us in our three
dimensional space by enhancing our perception of the
relative motion of things in space. Our spatial experience is
our response to the external stimuli or the forces we perceive.
250
Spatial experience, in general, results directly from the nature
of the place and the nature of human perception. The
nature of place embodies the quality, and its physical
realization. The nature of human perception embodies the
knowledge gained by perception and the knowledge
gained by thought.
Spatial experience may be discussed by identifying the
source of our association in response to the perceived stimuli.
That is,the when, what, why, and how of such recognition.
The first three queries refer directly to the nature of the place,
specifically how the particular socio-political, economic and
physical context defines it. The last query refers to the nature
of our perception which enables us to engage with the
context we see and feel.
Any architectural intervention isa affirmation of a context, a
affirmation of an existing order. Existing qualities, conditions,
and forces affect the process of intervention. Every decision
serves as reference for a future decision.
251
The nature of place relies on three basic relationships each of
which simultaneouly reinforce and support a particular range
of associations and use intentions. The three relationships include a conceptual level, a level of organization systems,
and a level of physical vocabulary.
Any architectural intervention, independent of size, depends
on a basis for understanding these three levels of association.
The Conceptual Level considers the general and abstract notion of the place articulated to explore the programmatic
content. It isexpressive of a principle to concept and it is
manifested through our implicit recognition.
In part, the conceptual isarticulated by its tonality. Tone is
defined by the emotions and feelings induced by our interaction with the physical surrounding and includes the sense of
awe, fear, violence, restfulness, peace, etc. The capacity for
recognition and interpretation of such lies in our desire to engage with what surrounds us as stimuli and to what extent we
perceive and respond to such stimuli.
252
"The essence of perception isselective
attention to something important."
-James Gibson
"Two conclusions follow with regard to
perception: First, it depends on
stimulation; and Second, it depends
on the interests of the individual
observer. "
-James Gibson
One pursues and articulates a conceptual level to bind together perception sequences to generate a shared identity
or character, as a product of an implicit system formulated
over time. Its capacity to convey meaning and symbolism
depends on our interaction with such intervention and how
well it supports a shared understanding of its perception. This
isa group image from shared experiences.
The Second level of association considers Organization
Systems. It builds upon an acceptance that orientation in
space isthe framework of cognition and isnecessary to
secure a sense of emotional security. It speaks of the
recognition of an order which exists, and which istransformed
through our intervention to support the dialogue between
intentions, concepts, and generative principles. This level isa
system of principles to cope with forces at work. Its basis relies
on our understanding of how we perceive space. Our association reflects the recognition use.
The second level of association affirms our understanding of
what surrounds us.
253
The third level of association isthe Actual Physical Realization
(vocabulary) of our intentions which are achieved through a
system of elements. It implements the dialogue between
concept and organization principles. It isthe explicit
expression of the relation of form to force. This level
recognizes the multitude of possibilities, depending on the
elements used, for an expressive quality to be carried out
into reality. The chosen elements contribute to our
experience of a place with intrinsic qualities. These intrinsic
qualities define the sensous quality of a place.
They effect the look, smell, sound, and touch of the place.
This level of association identifies physical vocabulary as tools,
elements, or specifics employed to achieved a conceptual
association. It recognizes and uses the specific physical
attributes at hand to reach a shared set of agreements regarding content.
254
The individual identity and character of the intervention isthe
product of two systems. First, it isan implicit system based on
shared experiences. Second, it isthe physical structure of the
intervention which isthe product of an explicit system based
on the understanding of formal behaviour and physical
attributes. These two systems, implicit and explicit, define the
norm and the range of possibilities it may sustain. The range
of possibilities consider the specific issues, requirements, and
goals at hand while the norm supports the coherence of the
whole in relation to the physical world around it.
not create a new kind of vision, but
to educate our attention.
-James Gibson
255
Generative Process
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Douglas Graf Diagram of Louis Kahn's
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Louis Kahn, Salks Institue
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H.Allen Brooks Diagram of F L. Wright
Destruction of the Box
256
UJ
Douglas Graf Diagram of Le Corbusier's Ronchamp
G. Boehm, Conceptual Sketch for Performance Center
257
Space experienced through light is dominating. Matter is
defined by the notion that it is really the product of
movement in space.
Generative principles as organizational systems are
recognized as the basis for this work. Simultaneous
continuities are observed to affirm the continuity of space
and light.
Conceptual association speaks of a capacity to accept different but supportive interpretations within a set of agreements and a system of relationships. For an intervention to be
a vehicle for meaning and significance, it must allow a range
of individual as well as collective interpretations; e.g.
individual not in terms of size but rather in terms of being
more specific to a person and collective in terms of a group
image based on shared experiences.
The experience of a place isdefined by the pattern of
sensations which make up its meaning and which affect our
immediate well being.
258
Benisch and Partners, Conceptual
diagram
Benisch and Partners, Conceptual
diagram for the Munich Olympic Park
Identifiable character isthe result of a qualitative
interaction between observer and observed.
Behavioral Principles (Organization systems), as
generative principles, discuss ways of describing a
spatial connection with a larger existing system. They are
qualities of physical form and spatial territory and support
particular meanings and range of uses.
Behavioral Principles such as Continuity, Territory, and
Stability are not dependent on particular attributes of
elements or specifics but rather depend on our
perception of how they affect us. These are explicit
concepts which define the basis for our experience of
space and light.
Continuity isan affirmation of space and light as positive
conditions of the physical world. The world of
architecture assumes that space and light and their
continuities are more dominant than its discontinuities.
259
Territory isthe spatial result of physical definition. It isthe
spatial interaction between elements.
The demarcation that results from the interaction between a
closure line and the location of adjacent columns which are
not colinear with the closure line summarizes the concept of
double-sided. The association of Outside is provided by what
isbeyond the closure and it isperceived as continuous light,
the closure line isthe solid which defines the Inside in
reference to the Outside. Inside is perceived as enclosed
light. The concept of double-sided isthe recognition of light
(continuous), solid , light (enclosed).
Incontrast to the notion of reference is a concept of onesidedness, where only one side of the reference is
acknowledged.
Our understanding, in diagram form, evolves from:
260
Paul Klee diagram, Physical
Demarcation as spatial zone
Ila
Spatial Transformation
from :
A4
..Z
g:::'
--
Light, Outside
Lipht
~Liht
nside
...
\
---.
to :
with:
n
.-Solid
Light
Light
-Solid
Light, Outside
Light
a. Light inside, protected.
b. Continuity of Material, Solid
c. Light outside, unprotected
a. Continuity of Material, Solid
b. Material isdominant recognition
a. Continuity of light, double-sided
b. Light (space) dominating.
Medieval Village,
Central Organization
261
Territorial association begins with the basic recognition of
Light, Solid, and Light. In the built environment, the
association of Territorial Continuity isachieved from the
relative minor lateral displacement between
demarcations. In contrast, the association of Territorial
Privacy isachieved from larger lateral displacement
which separate demarcations and support the
discontinuity. Inspecific terms, the two descriptions refer
to the difference between the association of agricultural
stepping on a hillside and the association of a mezzanine
whose vertical height is large enough to provide visual
discontinuity from below.
Agricultural Stepping isseen as the attempt to gain
horizontal surfaces for use.
The result of transforming the understanding of Territorial
Continuity and Privacy yields an interaction between
demarcations which provides for the association of each
of the demarcations plus a territory gained from the
relationships between them; a three dimensional
continuity is achieved.
262
263
Spatial Attributes
Light
Solid
Light
.
Territorial Continuity
Territorial Privacy
Light
Basic Association (Light, Solid, Light)
Two dimensional relationship.
Light zones represent continuity,
e.g. most dominant element.
Solid
4.-..................
44
4
*
Agricultural Stepping
264
Light
Light
a. Double-sided demarcations,
claiming associated territories
through their horizontal extension.
b. Spatial understanding of element
Example
F.L.Wright, Falling Water Elevation
F.L. Wright, Falling Water Section
Light
Solid
Light
Light
Light-Solid-Light
265
Stability speaks of the capacity of any physical definition to
define a three dimensional territory without the assistance of
additional elements. It speaks of an intrinsic quality that
associates the understanding of "defined territory" as the
three dimensional transformation of the light and space
continuities. Now space isas real to organize our spatial
experience as mass was in the past when used to achieve
protection from external forces.
The Concept of Stability isdiagrammatically summarized as
follows,
Continuity of Solid
from:
Center controlled (Cross)
Continuity of Solid
through:
Edge controlled
Continuity of light
to:
Space controlled
Horizontal Extension
266
from:
i
I
! I
Center
4.......
Continuity of Mass
Closed form controlled by center.
Spatial Stability
Example
Through:
Light
Solid
Solid
Light
Continuity of Solid
Edge Controlled
Continuity of light (space),
Horizontal extension
Tile Banding
Paul Klee diagram
267
Organizational System, as organizational relationships permits
the selection and deployment of physical elements to
support use intentions. Spatial structure is described as
organizational relationships. These relationships respond to
external forces in the context and internal forces. i.e. those
related to the intrinsic nature of elements used. The spatial
exchange of built and unbuilt elements generates the organizational system. The simultaneous layering, perception, and
use of such organizational system are desirable attributes of
any intervention.
Organizational systems at their basic level assume an "open"
or "packed" state. A "packed" state is defined when every
position possible, within a chosen frame of reference, isassumed built. An "open" state is defined as the opposite.
Organizational systems are discussed in terms of movement
(access), continuity of light, change and growth.
Their basic attributes include notions of Singular, Serial
268
Frame of Reference
Juxtaposition, Central, External Access, Open Field
relationships, and combinations of these.
A Singular relationship isbest presented by the example of an
open pavillion, in which there isno definition except for a
sectional limit.
Serial Juxtaposition implies movement. The arrangement of
parts in a sequence results in the lack privacies, except for
those achieved from agreements that are in themselves
independent of the sequencial order. The lack of privacies
allows for a sequence to be public in its association. 'A
Serial Juxtaposition organization achieves two qualitative
conditions. First, it may result in the understanding of an
implied direction, as in the case of the Early Christian Church.
Second, it may result in circular movement about a central
element, as early Colonial houses were organized about their
heat source.
A Central Organization defines Space as Object. Privacies
define the boundary between Space Inside and Space
Packed" State
Open State
269
Outside (public). The Central relationships in a courthouse
scheme provide for the movement between privacies and
the open court in either a directional or in a circular
sequence. The Central relationships in a traditional christian
church provide for directional movement crossing at the
central element (Altar).
Another example of Central Control isthe Gothic Cathedral
in the medieval town, i.e. Central control as relief.
An External Access Organization provides for movement and
privacies as seperate experiences. Inthe previous attributes,
movement supported the experience of privacies and their
organization. This is no longer simulataneous.
An Open Field Organization provides for two groups of
relationships, those between each privacy and movement,
and those relationships among the privacies. The relationship
between privacies and movement defines the relative
qualities of public and private which depends upon the
privacies orientation with respect to the public direction of
270
movement. The relationships among the privacies reinforces
movement as potentially a continuous spatial experience.
Combinations of all these atrributes are deployed to support
use intentions particular to the design exploration.
271
Organization System Attributes
L
Singular, Open Pavilion
Serial Juxtapositon, Directional
272
Serial Juxtapositon, Circular
....4....
Central, Court house
Central, Courthouse, Directional
Central, Cross
Central, Courthouse, Circular
Central, Cross
273
Organization System Attributes
.. i.....U..iii.A
ExternalAccess
Open Field
274
Organization System Examples
KL--
J. Stedig, Sockler Mtseum
H.Hertzberger, Apollo School
f-
4--
t *...... .-t
-
-I-External Access Organization:
External Stair and Serial juxtaposition of
galleries and private offices
Central Organization:
Central Steps are the Collecitive territory
275
.4
The physical vocabulary relates to the character of the
elements used to achieve the conceptual association.
Concepts of control, as attributes of organizational systems,
are defined by the following notion:
Alternation iscomposed of of two basic ideas.
First, the notion of a choice. Inthe physical
world, this isacknowledged primarily through the
recognition of Light and Dark, Left and Right, or
Large and Small.
Second, Alternation is about the territorial
exchange between two ongoing systems. Inthe
physical world, this isunderstood through the
recognition of relationships between elements
such as concepts of Registration, Displacement,
and Dimensional Self-Stabilities.
Alternation exemplifies the simplest form of spatial stability.
Stability, in this work, isdefined as the basic way to define a
territory.
276
"...Every physical form, every living
form, every pattern of feeling or
thought has its own unique identity, its
boundaries, its extension and its wider
context it contains or iscontained by
another pattern; it follows or is
followed by another pattern. The
unique identity, discrete shape, and
nature of a space-occupying
substance are shaped by the
boundary that seperates it from and
connects it to the space outside... In
the some way the physical, biological,
or moral individuality of man isthe
function of his active relationship with
the physical and social environment."
-Gyorgy Kepes
Light-Dark, Left-Right, and Large-Small define the first
possibility for choice, a yes or no condition. The repetition of
this association isthe simplest way to induce the perception
of space.
The Concept of Registration provides for the recognition of
elements in relation to a territory. This defines the orientation
of their association in space. Registration provides for an intensification of a territory.
Displacement, in general terms, isdescribed in terms of
Translation and Directional Registration. Translations involves
the notion of distance from a frame of reference and its
rotation.
Directional Registration involves the notion of positional conformance and dimensional registration.
In more direct terms, Displacement speaks of the claiming of
the territory associated with a demarcation. The claiming of
the territory isquantified through the extension of the
demarcation to define both sides of its norm.
277
Concept of Control: Alternation
Left and Right Alternations
Light and Dark Alternations
278
Hans Schindler, Lobell House Section
Large and Small Alternation
zIJ..
Left and Right Alternation
Large and Small Alternation
279
Concept of Control: Alternation
Hans Scharoun, Geschwister School,
Lunen, Germany
Paved Street
F.L. Wright, Taliesen West
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Registration
Registration
280
Registration
Concept of Control: Alternation
Paul Klee diagram, Displacement
Displacement as Translation
and Rotation
D .. -
....
Displacement with Directional Registration
281
Dimensional self-stability speaks of intrinsic dimensional attributes associated with specific elements and their relationship
to other elements as reinforced by dimensional rules and
systems of deployment.
282
Concept of Control: Alternation
N
Plaza del Domo, Italy
Maurice Smith Diagram of Malevich's
Red Square
Maurice Smith Diagram, Malevich
Maurice Smith Diagram of Piazza
del Domo
Dimensional Self-Stability
Dimensional Self-Stability
Dimensional Self-Stability
283
The process of building articulates the nature of the
assemblage and its elements. Each element with its own
process can support the generation of a spatial territory. By
exploring the intrinsic nature of things, its new use as
generative principles can be applied within a new
conceptual framework. The goal isto generate responsive
environments as positive extensions of the existing order of
the context in pursuit of new shared meaning and
agreement.
The intrinsic nature of elements isbased on the notion of
Self-Stability. This isdependent on its physical properties
which define territory without depending on any additional
demarcations.
The physical properties of elements are organized into Form
Families. The List of elements isas follows:
Single-sided surface
Habitation isalways limited to one side, for
example "above it" or "below it".
e.g. ground plane
284
Single-Sided SurfaceL. Saarinen,
Kresgue Ausitorium
Two-sided surface
Habitation occurs on both sides of the surface
e.g. Falling Water Planar demarcations.
Surface tension form
Complete single-sided surface. The range of
surface tension forms includes from the
organic world to geometric and crystalline
forms.
Planar Demarcation
Two dimensional Demarcation whose physical
property may be that of a double-sided or singlesided surface. Demarcation that defines the
association of Light, Solid, and Light.
Two-sided Surface
F.L. Wright, Falling Water
Surface Tension Form
Unknow Artist, pottery
285
Skeletal or lineal frameworks
Aggregation of point supports achieved from a
self-stable system which defines a three dimensional territory without depending on additional
or external physical definition. The degree of
partial containment for the framework will
depend on the relationships of the elements
within the aggregation.
Screen
Light transformation system which depending
on elements and numbers used supports the
range of transformation from the blocking of
light directly to a result with increasing light
leading to openess.
Macintosh introduced the two Dimensional
Screens as substitutes for the solid walls which
had been the norm. Eye Level intensification
286
Screen, cont'd
within the light transformation isthe first
association of the ground plane as three
dimensional space. Eye level intensification
reinforces movement through space.
A screen Light transformation using planar
elements issummarized next.
287
Screen Light Transformation: Planar demarcations
288
II
289
Element: Screen
Jill'
Two Dimensional Screen
Three Dimensional Sreen, Eiffel Tower
290
Three Dimensional Screen, A. Gaudi,
Sagrada Familia
-
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--
Three Dimensional Screen:
Hans Scharoun, Berlin Philarmonic Hall Stairs
291
I
C)
.9.
List of Spatial Quality:
Partial containment
First spatial quality which defines a three
dimensional territory as the spatial result of
physical form.
PartialContainment
For spherical demarcations, which intrinsically
have the capacity to contain, can be only
recognized as a partial containment when
it isincomplete. Its relationship to other elements
will determine its nature as a single-sided or twosided surface.
For planar demarcations, which only define a
two dimensional spatial relationship and
intrinsically cannot contain, a partial containment isachieved by constructing a demarcation
with planar returns. Its final geometric
construct isno longer planar (height and
length) but defines the third dimension. The degree of partial containment isachieved by the
size, number, and nature of returns provided.
292
Italian Piazza
. . .. .
.. .. .
Spatial Quality: Partial Containment
Paaul Rudolph, Yale Center
Aldo VanEyck, Partial Containment
C Coveri and EEllis, Iglesia de Nuestra Sra.
de Fatima, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
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293
-
294
Addenda
295
Addendum A: Proposed Development
296
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297
a
Addendum B: Recollections
.. feels like a known place... very much at ease with the
physical surroundings although they are quite different in its
building elements from our daily experience. Curiosity and
fine weather bring us to walk through the city, I smile
constantly and continue to walk for my entire stay. Day by
day, I begin to understand the city and its people.
There is no limit to where we go but the understanding of the
different parts of the city begins to unveil. As I walk, I begin to
expect where the street cafes can be found for a quick refreshment. I sense where wet laundry is to be hung before I
walk by it, I begin to understand where children will be
playing before I hear their voices.. feels like a known place...
Walking is no longer a link between two points, it isbeyond a
right or left turn. It becomes a complete experience of a
place. A place where one anticipates, where one isassured
and confirmed. The busy streets set up the stage for the sand
lots where children play, the places for afternoon walking
and looking begin to explain the private corners of the city.
One part isnot seperate from the others, but rather it is always
experienced as part of the whole... a whole which is with
298
you... always understood.
I try to remember the reaction of other international INDESEM
'88 participants visiting Split as I was. I remember their smiles,
but I remember them lacking the enthusiasm for Split which I
felt. Was Split taken for granted?.
What do I recall from Split...? People everywhere.. .not tourists
as April was too early for the season, but residents of the City
of Split everywhere. Walking, talking, sitting, looking...
I recall the sense of the place. A corner where good "burek"
was found, a set of steps where one could sit and look, a
large open area where the highest density of cafes where
located. All different parts of the whole, all needed to
understand the place called Split.
The experience of Split became the experience of a balance
between individual identification and a collective understanding. Looking back, the overpowering experience of the
Old City was one of identity and character.. there isno other
Split.
Split, Yugoalavia, April 1989
299
Addendum C: Dictionary
Behaviour (bi-havyer) n.
Demeaner
1.
Action, reaction, or function under specified
2.
circumstances
Co.llec.tion
1.
2.
3.
(k -lek'sh n) n.
The act or process of collecting.
A group of objects or works to be seen.
An accumulation
Co.llec.tive (k-lek'tiv) adj.
1.
Formed by collecting, assembled or
accumulated into a whole.
Feeling (fe.ling) n.
1.c. A physical sensation, emotional, mental
sensation
Form (fo()rm)
1.a. The shape and structure of something as
distinguished from its material.
300
Nature (na cher) n.
The order, disposition, and essence of all entities
2.
composing the physical universe
Norm (norm) n.
A standard, model, or pattern regarded as
1.
typical for a specific group
Orga.ni.za.tion (org -n -za'sh n) n.
The Act of organizing or the process of being
1.
organized.
The state or manner of being organized.
2.
Something that has been organized or made
3.
into an ordered whole.
Something comprising elements with varied func4.
tions that contribute to the whole and to
collective functions; an organism.
Principle (prin se-pel) n.
A basic truth, law or assumption or an organized
1.
explanation
301
Spa.tial (spa'sh 1)adj.
Of pertaining to, involving, or having the nature
of space
Struc.ture (struk'ch r) n.
1. A complex entity.
2. a. The configuration of elements, parts, or constitu
ents in such an entity; organization; arrangement.
2. b. Constitution; make-up.
The interrelation of parts or the principle of organi
3.
zation for a complex entity.
Relatively intricate or extensive organization.
4.
Something constructed, especially a building or
5.
part.
Space (spas) n.
l.a. A set of elements or points satisfying specified
geometric postulates: non-euclidean space.
1.b. The intuitive three-dimensional field of everyday
experience.
1.c. The infinitive extension of the three-dimensional
field.
302
Whole (hol) n.
All of the components, parts or elements of a
1.
thing.
Complete entity or system.
2.
303
Addendum C: Process of Conceptualizing
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306
Hans Scharoun, Library in Berlin, Germany: Conceptual Thoughts Analysis
307
Addendum F: Spatial Structure Exploration Prototype
N. C. Habraken, Competition for a Town Hall for the City of Amsterdam, Holland
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Reference, Christian Church within the city's tissue
309
Afterword
At this point, some conclusions may be drawn...
The process of refering to the experience of the physical
world as a basis for projection isvery rewarding. The context
in which my discovery has occurred isdefined by what has
been said repeatedly throughtout this work on the value of
concepts of spatial content. The construction of space as
experience isthat which we all share.
This work has taken shape as an exercise to raise questions, it
isnot an end but the begining of the search for answers.
Time constraints and the decision to consider the large scale
design exploration assured the fact that I could not reach
with this exploration issues of materials, notions of institutions,
and in general issues associated with programmatic content.
This work continues...
Although, Institutionally it isthe end, I only begin...
310
311
-isme
.
312
mer,
-
Bibliography
313
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