November 2008 Archives
There is also one room intersection with the cathedral where the visitor enters through the window on the right side of the cathedral.
I also reduced the scale of the of the residual walls at the Kremlin end of the site. When I scaled the drawing I realised they where about 20-50 m wide. Not quite the human scale I was going for. Its huge. Now the are between 1-5 on average.
I have been working on defining
the first slab.
It was agreed that I would
go back to the site because containing with nothing to contain was leading to
surreal landscapes that I couldn’t make much sense of.
I mentioned in the post
bellow that the new container connects the Cathedral and the Kremlin. The plan
shows my first attempt at formalising this transition at ground level. The foundation slab is both dense and solid.
At the Kremlin end of the plan
the slab disinigrates into residual walls. These walls are a soft boarder. The
small scale of the spaces that they create are intended to give a more human
scale to the enormity of the slab. The walls then transition into large masses
where the visitor passes through very narrow passages before arriving at the
core. The main cores are the black buildings indicated on the plan. These are
native objects which where already on the site. At the level of the foundation
slab these are filled with concrete – their exterior shell is allowed to decay
off. The impression of the interior of the native object is left on the exterior
of the core.
The transition from the Kremlin
to the church is indicated by a change from linear to curvilinear. The passages
around the church are recessed into large deep slabs of concrete. These slabs contain
traces and marks of the site and create new ways to approach the Cathedral.
The cathedral its self is
entombed, except for at the main perspective axis from where it can be viewed from
the city. At these axis the corners are exposed, displayed the cathedral as a spoil
from its concrete container. The tomb of Cathedral mimics its interior form - inverting relationship - we now enter from the
interior ( I hope that makes sense).
Notes from tutorial:
Work more on the plans.
On the foundation plan I
need to better indicate the difference between what was already on the site and
my intervention. Everything I wrote above should be understood by looking at
the drawing.
I need to draw the next
slab. Defining more intricately what happens in these spaces. Now that I have
defined the areas I need to figure out how these large areas (e.g. the ones
around the cathedral will be used. I need to incorporate my intricate landscape
into my slab landscape.
The VERY unfinished plan bellow is the first slab, in other words the foundation slab of the new complex that connects the new quarters of the Patriarch of Moscow who now resides on the grounds of the cathedral and the residence of the Russian Government that occupies the Kremlin.
The massive cores are made by casting into the existing buildings on the site as the original building eventually falls to ruin the the cores take on the solid form of the old city. This petrified city is frozen in time (see ref. in previous post). The smaller complex spaces around the cores re establish the human scale at street level of this rather mammoth structure. They are composed of fragments of casted wall, ceiling and floor. Around the fragments are openings that connect to the slab above.
The transition from the the fragmented linear spaces to the larger and more curvilinear spaces signify the transition from Kremlin to church.
That is all I can write now, I have to go - I will post again later with progress on the plan. I know it is nothing to look at yet but maybe it gives you a small idea of what I am trying to acheive.
There are the two different types of displacement, upward and downward. I still have to add the others and then connect and combine them.
I also want to work the slabs into a more fragmented landscape, connecting and disconnecting as they encounter obstacles.
The slabs are deformed around a large object leaving the impression of the object in the slabs while also intersecting a smaller object to create inhabitable space.
I tried two different colours to distinguish between object and slab.
Formal Manifesto
The new container is a
response to the conflict of expansion and preservation. It is a new building with
its own program that expands vastly over a site while also preserving as a type
of artifact the existing city that currently inhabits the site.
The combination of
these two types the new and the historic creates indeterminacy of place and
object. With the introduction of memory into the object, the object begins to
embody both an idea of its self and the memory of its former self.
The new container is a deep
structure designed for expansion and consumption. The container manifests its self
as vertical slabs. On the one hand, the Slab is a generic building type
associated with public buildings and the expansion of modern day city centers.
On the other hand it is the powerful formal language of the
The slab is the narrator.
It guides the visitor through a procession of unexpected intersections. It does
not necessarily destroy but rather alter the way that we perceive the familiar
or what we will call the native object. It is at the intersection between the
native object and the slab that its Cartesian linearity is broken and history
is bent.
These intersections
manifest themselves in five different moments:
Displacement
- Containment
through seclusion.
The physical movement of
the native object to allows for the passing of the slab. It is pushed either vertically up or down from
its original location on the site and relocated to a new level within the slab
landscape. This action can cause the native object to be elevated to the level
of a tower or sunk deep into the ground in a recessed piazza.
This occurs when the
slab maintains its linearity but splits to avoid the native object. This event
causes a break in the slab but has no effect on the native object. Repulsion
can be combined with the event of Displacement. It creates a platform, if
displaced, or and area on the original site, if no displacement occurs, where
the native object can be venerated.
Impression
- Containment
through embalming.
This occurs when the
slab distorts to preserve the native object and in doing so it is forced around
the object deforming and taking on an impression of the object. Once the object
is embalmed it decays. The slab replaces
the native object, containing and preserving by mimicking. This event is not about the presences of the
object but rather about the recognition of its absence.
Intersection
- Containment
through incorporation
Intersection occurs
when neither the slab nor the native object are displaced. The slab contains
the object by slicing it into sections. The native object is both destroyed and
preserved within the slab. The residual
spaces between native object and slab become inhabited as rooms.
Consumption
- Containment
through entombing
This is a full burial
of the native object. The object is contained in a tomb deep with in the slab. These rooms are repositories, sacred spaces
designed for the veneration of the native objects.
LOST MONUMENTS – Making & Breaking the Icon,
“Where history ends, memory
begins.”
The constant breaking down and
rebuilding of our surroundings are a modern manifestation of the ancient act of
Iconoclasm through which the precious and the disposable become
interchangeable. While
intended as kind of visual defacement that effaces the memory of the destroyed-this
event may none the less preserve the memory of the condemned in the very act of
obliteration.
Ruthlessly defacing or dismantling our
icons to secure the iconic status of their successor we place the damned in the
category of memory where they are further elevated towards the iconic, the
unforgettable.
Rousing strong emotion in
the viewer, the iconic is both desired and detested. By absorbing and
incubating change it has the power to exist in both history and memory. It
is this power that renders it everlasting.
The new container is
neither placed nor integrated. It restricts architectural reincarnation by
simultaneously preserving and destroying. Fat with the auras of generations of buildings
it contains their historic memory
while providing a platform for the development of new order. Representing both
absence and presence it oscillates between container and contained. Through the
consumption and deformation of the familiar the generic becomes iconic.
The impression is one way that the slabs can deform when their path intersects with the historic. The Horizontal slabs merge into a vertical slab to bypass the artefact. Although in the event of impression there is no intersection, it is still a violent deformation of the slab which leaves the impression of the artefact in the vertical slab. 
1.The Light Well
2.The Apse
3.The Mimetic
3.The pocket
5. The Slabs replace the historic object.
The platform or slab is one of the most generic forms of architectural manifestations, a representation of the corporate city. I know that is now up to me to re-invent it.
Please keep in mind that these ideas are not set in stone but I thought I would put them out there anyway. I wrote this before I read the comment on my last post, so my ideas are still set within the context of the site. I will get away from the site now and work on my ideas about containment. I know, I really have to define them before they become the elephant in the room...hmm..maybe they already are.
A Container for the Urban Artefact
“Thus the union between
the past and the future exists in the very idea of the city that it flows
through in the same way that memory flows through the life of a person; and
always in order to be realised, this idea must not only shape but be shaped by
reality. This shaping is a permanent aspect of the city’s unique artefacts,
monuments and the idea we have of it.”
The
This erasure and
falsification of the historic is set to continue over the next years as old
The Kremlin and
At the centre of the city, in the
Central Administrative Okrug, is the Moscow Kremlin, which houses the home of
the President of Russia as well as many of the facilities for the national
government. The city faces an empty site. Where a colossal structure should
stand there is an urban oddity, a cloned cathedral. The city crystallizes
around an opulent urban folly.
The Kremlin, being the
destructive antagonist of urban artefacts declares its intention to expand over
the grounds between its historic complex and the Cathedral Christ our Saviour.
The marshy banks of the
The deep plan of the new container stretches
into the city. Its depth is unquantifiable. With no clear beginning or end it
takes on the characteristics of the everlasting. The slab preserves indiscriminately, freezing
a part of the city in horizontal layers.
The new container is constructed as a representation of the consciences
of the city. A focal point, it functions as a device that defines and destroys.
It embalms the bodies of existing buildings connecting the individual artefact
to the collective memory. The mummified sections of the city cause a split
between history and memory. ‘The new type of architecture is thus that of
memory and history. With the introduction of memory into the object, the object
begins to embody both an idea of its self and the memory of its former self.’
Damnatio
Memoraie
Today
we live in a culture of consumption. The deformation, breakdown and eventual
destruction of our surroundings are constant. The precious and the disposable
are interchangeable. We recognize value in the over stimulation often
associated with wealth - a nostalgic and eclectic collection of history and
memory – a modern manifestation of the ancient act of Iconoclasm exercised on a
daily basis in our endless search for new order.
“The
act of iconoclasm – while apparently a kind of visual defacement that effaces
the memory of the destroyed- may none the less preserve the memory of the
condemned in the very act of obliteration."
Ruthlessly
defacing or dismantling our icons to secure the iconic status of their successor
we place the damned in the category of memory where they are further elevated
towards the iconic, the unforgettable.
Damnatio Memoraie, the
act of forgetting with intent, of censorship, damnation and perpetual
punishment through deformation is the means to eternal preservation in memory - the holey grail of cultural
veneration.
Having no meaning of it own the new container
alters our perception by preserving and destroying. It absorbs and incubates
change deforming with both history and memory.
In the ultimate act of ‘architectural cannibalization’
the container consumes past memory in order safeguards its future history. It restricts architectural reincarnation
through the preservation of the venerated within its slabs. Fat with the auras of generations of buildings
it contains
their historic memory while providing a platform for the development of new
order. Representing
both absence and presence it oscillates between containers and contained.
I am testing how I can move between exterior and interior - absence and presence. I want to find a way to be able to continuously move from solid to void. It is not quite there!?!The formal manifestation of the container should be able to evolve while also leaving a trace.
Since it might contain the new headquarters for the Russian Federation, I want to find a method that deals with both the way you approach the container and the way the container spreads itself into the the city.
LOST
MONUMENTS – Making & Breaking the Icon,
“Where history ends, memory begins.”
The
ruthlessly defacing or dismantling of one icon has secured the iconic status of
its successor. It is not the formal expression of the monument itself that
makes it iconic but the ceremonious annihilation of one icon in order to set
the stage for the creation of another. ‘The visual defacement of a monument in
an attempt to erase it from history serves only to preserve the memory of the
ill fated through the very act of its obliteration’. The ‘new’ monument is
defined by its difference from the ‘old’ monument. Absence is more noticeable than
presence, so through the act of eradication we place the condemned in the
category of memory where it is further elevated towards the iconic, the
unforgettable.
The
site represents the sum of all the buildings which have occupied it. It becomes
a site of ‘invisible archeology’. The destruction or resurgence of a monument marks
a time; it is a formal documentation of an event. A new container to be constructed must assume
the aura of generations of buildings and connect the historic memory of
past buildings. It
will end the cycle of architectural cannibalism through its ability to absorb
and contain past memory while allowing future history. To restrict
architectural reincarnation, the container must oscillate between absence and presence,
countering the relentless cycle of change. The monument alters but does not
destruct. It absorbs and incubates change as it forms with both history and
memory.
