The Encased Copy
This project is investigating the relationship between the original architectural object and its copies. Contrary to general opinion in today's society the project is based on the argument that the copy is not something bad, devalued or impure, it is instead something to cherish.
The argument is visualized through a scenario of multiple iterations of copying, creating a context in which our preconceived ideas of the copy can be re evaluated.
The physical context of the project is located around Mies van der rohes Illinois institute of technology in Chicago. Besides being subject of excessive copying the work of mies van der rohe is a good example of the polemical relationship between the original and the copy.
The idea of context within the project is not limited to the physical boundaries of the campus site. It is also including the larger body of the miesian architecture as well as how these buildings are represented and in the end perceived.
Background
The project is based on a fictional narrative sited around the Illinois institute of technology in Chicago, starting after 1969.
Following the dismissal of Mies from the commission to complete the IIT campus in 1958, the board of directors hired the office of Skidmore Owings and Merrill.
After some time however it became obvious that the office lacked the skills of the former master. Displeased with the poor copies of the now deceased Mies, they decided to go back to the original source.
Not trusting anyone else with new interventions the board decided to use the existing Mies buildings on the campus, to use them not just as ideals to follow but as constructions to be copied to the last detail, creating clones of identical appearance and materiality.
However the consequence of the compulsive repetition of building types, which soon came to expand over a vast area, was a disappearance of context which had defined the smaller framed campus.
With the continuous campus the buildings no longer offered an ordered refuge from the dense surrounding city, instead the campus had become a city in itself.
The original buildings are left alone, not to be renovated or protected except from inhabitation.
Slowly the buildings are starting to decay and thereby visualizing the traces of history, distinguishing themselves from the reproduced objects.
Reproduction of iconic image
This distinction is however not to suggest that the original buildings possess some mystical aura, although this has been a common perception in the cult of miesian followers. This idea has also been reinforced by the perception of Mies himself.
In the last decade of his life Mies turned into a mythical figure, this much due to a series of monographs that paid homage to him as the master of modern building.
In each of the monographs one inevitable finds the identical basic inventory of reproduced materials. This might have been due to an excessive publicistic propaganda but also to the limited amount of material that was approved for circulation.
Mies insisted on a strict control of the quality of images of his buildings. This led to a limited circulation of what now have become iconic images of his work.
These photographs have thus come to influence our perception of these buildings. In many ways the images have become more "real" than the physical structures. This can be compared to the reconstruction of the Barcelona pavilion.
"In 1986, the Barcelona Pavilion was reconstructed in color. Through its resurrection, its aura was killed. (In architectural history, it remains stubbornly black and white.)" (Rem Koolhaas, Miestakes 2008)
The Barcelona pavilion is not the same as its photograph. It is an icon of twentieth century architecture precisely because it existed as a photograph and could not be occupied. It exists as a static representation of an object that extends beyond its physical nature.
The intention with the narrative is therefore also to affect this static image of Mies through the continuous reproduction of the original.
But as we have seen a debate about reproduction of Miesian architecture also has to include the reproduction and manipulation of the iconic image.
Appropriation of the reproduced object
The primary aim with the project is not to idealize the romantic notion of the decaying icon, but instead to question it through its new context. The consequence of the proliferation of the copies is a reinterpretation of the isolated iconic object.
The subtlety of the details that once elevated the original generic structures to a higher form of building is now reduced through continuous repetition to a merely generic sameness.
With the sprawling condition of the fictional scenario the campus had to deal with a multitude of programs. While not applying other typologies, these programs are now squeezed and skewed into the set framework of the campus buildings.
However the appropriation of the cloned buildings are not seen as abominations of something unique but instead a way to move forward, a way to perhaps finally escape the ghost of mies.
We will start to judge the buildings not as works of art but as objects to be inhabitated.
The copies will not be seen as degraded instead reinterpreted and even cherished.
The Encased copy
The generic structures were expanding over a vast area and soon created an alienating environment for the students, trapped in a museum of Mies.
Based on the background scenario the proposal is a structure that encases the original buildings in an inhabitable shell.
The main reason for the encasement is to stop the proliferation of copied buildings by preserving them as new originals.
The encasement has in this way two functions. It not only protects the buildings behind from their surrounding environment, but also ironically protecting the buildings from themselves as the encasement act as containment and restriction of the expansive forces of the campus
However this context is not just defined as a physical proximity between new and old, it also engages with the main subject of the project; the relationship between the original architectural object and its copies.
With the encasement this relationship is not primarily directed inward, On the contrary, the encasement is offset from the buildings it encases.
With this detachment the encasement is both reinforcing the idea of the copies as precious objects, preserving them untouched by intervention, but at the same time the encasement is challenging them by altering their external appearance.
The encasement is a copy of the building behind; however the new copy distinguishes itself from its former cousins, through material thickness, fabrication process and visual aesthetics.
It is breaking with the modernist formal language; it signifies a shift, a start of a new cycle.
In this way it is transforming the encased building, making it the new originalThe encasement is a thick, solid cast resin structure. The choice of material, as well as its oversized dimensions, is reinforcing the shift away from the modernist envelope of glass and steel.
The artificial copy
Similar to the appropriation of the reproduced buildings the encasement is not to be seen as an intentional degradation of the buildings behind, creating what could at first be seen as a bad exaggerated copy.
In opposed to the contemporary trend of artificial cladding and refacing of facades
the intention is not just to provide a change in formal language and visual aesthetics, it is also to provide a programmatic inhabitation and densification of the site.
In addition to providing this new function to the shell the new resin structure is, contrary to the cheap artificial foam cladding of Disneyland and Las vegas alike, an expensive and highly complex technical construction.
Purity and inhabitation of the architectural object
The reason for the choice of material is not just to provide a contrast to the encased buildings, but paradoxically also to link the structure with larger issues within the miesian architecture. Many of which have been subject to criticism and contentious debate.
Mies van der Rohe came to personify the idea of minimal architecture. However the obsession with the minimal detail and the purity of the structure came to manifest itself in sometimes extreme solutions, disregarding issues of comfort and inhabitation.
In a similar way the proposed encasement structure is providing a new interpretation of this pragmatic obsession with its solid transparent walls. It is visualizing the inherent conflict between the purity of the architectural object and inhabitation within the miesian architecture.
The idea of inhabitation related to the work of mies is problematic because of the very specific manner in which it is represented, through iconic black and white images, framed and empty of any life only leaving the bare architecture exposed.
This problematic is related to Mary Douglas concept of purity,
"Dirt is matter out of place" (Mary Douglas, purity and danger, 1966)
Therefore any sign of inhabitation of these iconic buildings automatically look displaced and dirty, smudging the pure image of the architectural object.
The inhabitation of the encasement is implicitly engaging with this issue. It is not occupying
The miesian architecture, but through its proximity it effects it. The dirt is seen floating in the transparent resin structure, with a view of the encased building behind.
Through the inhabitation of the encasement the new structure is challenging these static black and white images. This might sound strange because the concept of encasement would appear to give these images even more prominence since the structure is obscuring the view of the exterior facades, leaving only the iconic images as the traces behind.
However, through its material properties the visual appearance of the new structure fluctuates between transparent, opaque and reflective, distorting the image of the objects behind.
Fragment copy
The encasement structure is not only effecting the image of the miesian architecture through its inhabitation, it is also gaining a new meaning through its formal language.
The new structure is not copying the encased object in its totality, it is limited to fragments assembled and interpreted in a new way. But as any assembly and montage it is not separated from its original source.
When the fragments are placed in a montage, the transformation of the fragments that occurs also exerts an effect on the original from which the fragments came.
Origin of the original
With the encasement structure the project is also challenging the romantic idea of Self origin, a literal beginning, a ground zero from which the original architectural object derives.
With the encasement structure one can immediately trace its origin through its transparent walls, just as the origin of the encased buildings can be traced back to the now decaying originals.
Even though the iit was conceived as a tabula rasa its buildings were not created as isolated objects from the current architectural development nor were they detached from architectural history.
Mies was undoubtedly one of the most influential architects for the modernist movement, however he did not alone create the style.
As explained by Rosalind Krauss
"...authenticity folded into the concept of style is a product of the way style is conceived as having been generated: that is, collectively and unconsciously. Thus an individual could not, by definition, consciously will a style." ( The Originality of the Avant-Garde, 1981)
Therefore there is also a need to engage with the copying and the perception of the miesian architecture beyond the physical boundaries of the iit, and a need to revise the view of many modernist buildings born at the same time, which has perhaps been unjustly judged as bad copies.
The relationship between the original and the copy in the context of the iit stretches beyond the time span of the fictional scenario, it is engaging with a time both before and after its creation.
Perhaps there is a need to also revise the originality of Mies's own work. Not only in relationship to other architects but also to mies himself.
Iit became a testing ground for many of mies,s ideas that were later repeated and applied in other projects. But the campus was also a place where proven constructions were implemented. In this way the campus signify a start of new cycles of iterations and an end of others.
Conclusion
As the original iit the now encased campus is representing the same beginning and end of cycles, as the reproduced buildings are now being viewed as new originals, transformed by their encasements.
But as mentioned before this beginning of new is not to be viewed as a self creation, detached from the continuum of architectural development.
The concept of encasement is strategically chosen. Just as the copy and original there is a constant tie between the encasement and the object it encases. This interrelationship is further reinforced since the encasement itself is a copy of the building behind.
However the encasement differs from the copy in the sense that it is also required to have a physical proximity to the encased buildings.
Therefore the new encasement structures are not to be copied only as a wrap leaving an empty void inside, deflating the very idea of encasement.
In that sense the encasement is limited to the very specific context of the iit. However as we have seen the context of the project goes beyond this physical definition.
It engages with larger issues related to the original architectural object and its copies, which is what defines the real context of the project.
Similar to the original configuration, the now expanded campus is also intended as a kind of testing ground. But what is tested is now not a new architectural language or typology, but instead a new way of looking at the miesian architecture and more importantly a re-interpretation of the original and the copy.
perhaps the most iconic view of the IIT, excluding views of individual buildings, is whats called the Mies alley, with wishnick hall (left), perlstein hall (right) and alumni memorial hall in the far back. the intention is to replicate the exact same view with the encasement replacing the footprint of the existing facades.
site proliferation through copying fragments of existing campus using the same spatial organisation
site proliferation by maintaining facade orientation and proximity to street network
cutting and joining foam pieces for model mould
applying wax layers on foam to protect it from melting
mould is taking a very long time to make for some reason, but it is almost done. will cast tomorrow. curing time is no longer than a day so with a little luck i will have a finished model on wednesday
exterior and interior modeling of facade details for model mold
plan of the new concept using casting of acrylic and bronze.
not sure about the undulating interior surfaces. the language is a consequence of the casting technique utilizing the melting reaction between eps foam of the mould and the acrylic resin.
Don't know if this is kitsch, bad taste or simply bad. Probably the last.
Today there is an increasing attraction to the use of facadism. This term refers to the issue of retention of old facades and the gutting of the space behind it. But it also includes the concept of covering up old facades with new ones. This method of preservation has been subject to a lot of criticism both as an erasure of historical space, reducing preservation to the visual exterior, but also to the idea of covering up facades in order to achieve a contextual coherence.
However at a closer look the idea of re-facing might not seem as controversial. In fact one could argue that the practice of changing and covering the appearance of a building's exterior has a long historical tradition, and that there is today a need to re-evaluate our negative view on the concept of the re-facing as well as the dictum of correlation between the exterior facades and the internal space behind. A dictum that has been imprinted in us since the modern movement started.
The idea of a disconnection between the outside and the inside is still automatically seen as something bad and false, a perception that has not been helped by the often exaggerated fantasy exteriors of postmodern buildings.
These buildings also use artificial means to simulate real materials and textures to fit a variety of styles. The most common material associated with these kinds of constructions is the Exterior Insulation and Finishing System, or EIFS, primarily consisting of an expanded polystyrene core. The frequent link between this material and the buildings of Disney land and Las Vegas alike, has unfortunately also given it a bad reputation as a synthetic fake material.
The aim with the technical thesis is therefore to re-evaluate both the concept of re-facing and also the material properties and design possibilities of EIFS.
EIFS is a material that has many advantages and not at all limited to the use of artificial shapes and designs. Although that transformative aspect is here seen as something that is an inherent quality of the material and something that should be explored to its full potential.
The recontextualization of the Illinois institute of technology is based on a fictional narrative starting after 1969.
Following the dismissal of Mies from the commission to complete the IIT campus in 1958, the board of directors hired the office of Skidmore Owings and Merrill.
After some time however it became obvious that the office lacked the skills of the former master. Displeased with the poor copies of the now deceased Mies, they decided to go back to the original source.
Not trusting anyone else with new interventions the board decided to use the existing Mies buildings on the campus, to use them not just as ideals to follow but as constructions to be copied to the last detail, creating clones of identical appearance and materiality.
With the fast growing number of enrolling students, the university was planning an extensive expansion of the campus.
However the consequence of the compulsive repetition of building types, which soon came to expand over a vast area, was a disappearance of context which had defined the smaller framed campus.
With the continuous campus the buildings no longer offered an ordered refuge from the dense surrounding city, instead the campus had become a city in itself.
The original buildings are left alone, not to be renovated or protected except from inhabitation.
Slowly the buildings are starting to decay and thereby visualizing the traces of history, distinguishing themselves from the reproduced objects.
This distinction is however not to suggest that the original buildings possess some mystical aura, although this has been a common perception in the cult of miesian followers. This idea has also been reinforced by the perception of Mies himself.
In the last decade of his life Mies turned into a mythical figure, this much due to a series of monographs that paid homage to him as the master of modern building.
In each of the monographs one inevitable finds the identical basic inventory of reproduced materials, dates are simply taken over. This might have been due to an excessive publicistic propaganda but also to the limited amount of material that was approved for circulation.
Mies insisted on a strict control of the quality of images of his buildings. This led to a limited circulation of what now have become iconic images of his work.
These photographs have thus come to influence our perception of these buildings. In many ways the images have become more "real" than the physical structures.
This can be compared to the reconstruction of the Barcelona pavilion.
"In 1986, the Barcelona Pavilion was reconstructed in color. Through its resurrection, its aura was killed. (In architectural history, it remains stubbornly black and white.)" (Rem Koolhaas, Miestakes 2008)
The Barcelona pavilion is not the same as its photograph. It is an icon of twentieth century architecture precisely because it existed as a photograph and could not be occupied. It exists as a static representation of an object that extends beyond its physical nature.
As in the case of the Barcelona pavilion, the reproduction of the original buildings at the iit represented a desperate dream to revive something precious from the past. However this nostalgic notion had the opposite effect. Not isolated to a single object the extensive proliferation transformed the buildings into imitation and kitsch.
With the sprawling condition of the fictional scenario the campus had to deal with a multitude of programs. While not applying other typologies, these programs are now squeezed and skewed into the set framework of the campus buildings.
The static image of the precious miesian structures is now affected both through the continuous reproduction of the original as well as the forced misappropriation,
The romantic notion of the decaying icon is now questioned through its new context. The consequence of the proliferation of the copies is a reinterpretation of the isolated iconic object.
The subtlety of the details that once elevated the original generic structures to a higher form of building is now reduced through continuous repetition to a merely generic sameness.
The generic structures were expanding over a vast area and soon created an alienating environment for the students, trapped in a museum of Mies. The university was stuck in the past and the austere appearance of the miesian structures had finally played out its role.
The environment did not just affect the current students on the campus but also the ability to attract new ones.
The Board now decided to take measures to drastically change the image of the university. This agenda was problematic since any modification of the existing structures now was impossible due to their classification as cultural heritage buildings.
The solution was to encase the buildings in artificial shells that would provide a change in aesthetic appearance without modifying what was hidden behind.
The austere buildings are now turned into colourful clichés in an attempt to make the image of the campus seem more cheerful and attractive.
Combined with an aggressive marketing campaign the board created the image of an idyllic college life style, framed by the colourful new facades.
However the image of happiness of the advertised college life is far from reality. And the forced idyllic image embodied by the colourful shells become as pressing as the objects that are hidden behind, were the former is representing a false content and meaning while the latter suffers from an inability to convey it.
However, paradoxically it is just through the act of camouflage that the original copies now are revived. The reproduced buildings, that through an extensive proliferation, before were transformed into everyday objects are now elevated and put in focus through their encasement.
By covering the facades their visual appearance now only exists in memory and the images of the buildings are the only recordings left behind. Like the black and white images of the Barcelona pavilion the images of the buildings have become real.
However, the facades have a dual function. Even though the artificial images of the buildings are now emphasised, so are their spatial qualities.
In this way we will see the buildings both as precious objects but also as structures to be inhabited.
The appropriation of the cloned buildings are not seen as abominations of something unique but instead a way to move forward.
There is a dependency between the reproduced buildings and their outer shell. Just as the proliferation of the copies changed the meaning of the originals, so does the shell to its hidden content.
The obvious difference is however that the shell is not totally restricted to the similarity of its content. It is not an exact replica of what it covers. Although being bound to functional requirements, as access and light conditions, it enjoys a freedom of transformation.
By changing the level of modification and the degree of dependency between the original copy and the shell, the meaning of them both becomes fluctuant.
The hidden facades become in this way something both mystical and highly practical. We know that there is something hidden but we can't fully grasp it; we might catch a glimpse of it through the openings of the shell, but never the whole thing. This creates a game of concealment were the initial single function of the shell is expanded.
