November 2009 Archives
I have been trying to work out a system of distortion which transitions from the passive space to the active space. Taking the 3 way image as inspiration for the method of distortion, the surface becomes increasingly varied, intricate and distorted from passive to active - The most active/ distorted surface will have different images on each side and some mirrored panels, forcing the user to move around from side to side and up and down to read the surface- inducing activity within the space.
PLEASURE PRINCIPLE
"Pleasure is the object, duty and the goal of all rational creatures." Voltaire
According to Freud's pleasure principle, all people seek pleasure and avoid pain. Therefore, hypothetically, consciously or subconsciously architects, seek to formalize or induce pleasure through their buildings or designs. Corbusier, validates this claim in his book the city of to-morrow, by making argument for form based on pleasure or pain.
PAIN OR PLEASURE AS A JUSTIFICATION FOR FORM
'Let us make matters clear: two sensations affect us; a feeling of comfort and a feeling of discomfort...Whenever a line is broken, jolted, irregular and constructed without rhythm, or the form is over-acute or over-bristling, our sense are painfully and grievously affected. Our spirits suffer as a result of this confusion and harshness, this lack of "good manners", and the word "barbourous" comes at once to the mind. But when a line is continuous and regular, and the forms are full and rounded without a break, a governed by a clear guiding rule, then the sense are solaced, the mind is ravished, liberated, lifted out of chaos and flooded with light. Then the word "mastery" comes to mind, it glows brightly and we are happy.' Le Corbusier
In Corbusier's book the city of to-morrow he outlines 2 sensations affecting us, comfort which he associates with pleasure, and discomfort which he associates with pain. Based on this observation, he makes an argument for an ordered form of architecture by associating pain with discomfort one experiences when faced with unguided geometry and chaos of form/ disorder, and pleasure with a relief one takes from regularity and order.
This simple outline of pleasure, limits pleasure to the feeling of comfort or relief- which are passive forms of pleasure. However, there are many different levels of pleasure, some active and some passive. Just as one experiences pleasure from rest and order (minimalist), one also experiences pleasure from mental and physical stimulation (baroque), a more active form of pleasure.
'It is a pleasing labour of the mind to solve the most difficult problems; allegories and riddles, trifling as they are, afford the mind amusement: and with what delight does it follow the well-connected thread of play, or novel, which ever increases as the plot thickens, and the ends most pleas'd, when it is most distinctly unravell'd. The eye hath this sort of enjoyment in winding walks, and serpentine rivers...Intricacy in form, therefore I shall define to be that peculiarity in the lines ,which compose it, that leads the eye on a wanton kind of chase' William Hogarth, alluding to an active form of pleasure through intricacy of form.
The bath-house is a place of many different types of pleasure, active and passive. The pleasure one experiences from extreme exercise, activity, stimulation or interaction (ACTIVE PLEASURE), varies from the pleasure one experiences from a massage/ sauna/ steam (SEMI-ACTIVE) which varies to the pleasure one gets from complete solitude and rest/escape/sleep (PASSIVE). The design for the bath-house aims to enhance either the passive or active pleasures of the program through the formal language of the architecture.
ACTIVE AND PASSIVE PLEASURE SPACE
The bath house's active program will consist of public lap pools and exercise gardens/ courtyards. Like the activities within, the active spaces will be designed to stimulate the body and the mind. Large overlapping, open spaces will allow for public interaction and activity and make room for movement and circulation. The walls will open up to the sky allowing light to flood in and activate the activity within. The variation in colour, form and intricate ornamented surfaces will stimulate the eye and 3d anamorphosis and placement of the ornament will be used to engage the mind and move the bodies in the space.
The ultimate passive activity or inactivity will be sleep. The passive program will be enhanced through the passive space, designed to relieve the eye and mind. Small, enclosed and isolated spaces will allow for solitary occupation and inactivity. The walls will cave in above to enhance the feeling of enclosure and to restrict the light entering the room, resting the eye and mind. The form and ornament simplifies and it is uniform and repetitive, giving order and calm to the space, enhancing the passive state of pleasure within.
Working on how the spaces inter-relate on a large scale. This is not finished, just what I have done so far.
ACTIVE/PUBLIC SPACE
The idea is that the outer layer of space is the most interlocked/overlapped/ exposed- the corridoor is so wide it is the size of the room. All the rooms vary in size and height. Boundaries between spaces are more open and ambiguous.
PASSIVE/PRIVATE SPACE
As one moves into the centre of the plan, the spaces more clearly split and uniform, small isolated and enclosed pockets of space emerge. The walls will be more thick and each space more defined. The arrangement of space simplifies and the units become more regular/ repeated. The passive space will also submerge below ground level.
BUILDING ON THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE
"Pleasure is the object, duty and the goal of all rational creatures." Voltaire
"The goal towards which the pleasure principle impels us - of becoming happy - is not attainable: yet we may not - nay, cannot - give up the efforts to come nearer to realization of it by some means or other." Sigmund Freud.
According to Freud's pleasure principle, all people seek pleasure and avoid pain. The basis for the project seeks to formalize and define architectural pleasure, in a proposal for a bath-house in London.
PASSIVE AND ACTIVE PLEASURE.
All pleasures can be divided into 2 categories, passive and active. The division of pleasure into these two types enables me to formalize the characteristics of the active and passive pleasure spaces and map out the program of the bathhouse.
ACTIVE
PLEASURE
Pleasure
that activates the mind and/or the body.
"...the use of our intelligence quite properly gives us pleasure. In this respect the brain is like a muscle. When we think well, we feel good. Understanding is a kind of ecstasy." Carl Saga
Pleasure through colour
Pleasure through variation
Pleasure through exposure
Pleasure through exploration/movement
Pleasure through ambiguous boundaries
Pleasure through connection
Pleasure through asymmetry
PASSIVE
PLEASURE
Pleasure
that relieves the mind and/or the body.
"Perhaps all pleasure is only relief." William S. Burroughs
FORMAL LANGUAGE:
Pleasure through repetition
Pleasure through uniformity
Pleasure through enclosure
Pleasure through simplicity
Pleasure through emptiness
Pleasure through readability
Pleasure through stillness
Pleasure through defined boundaries
Pleasure through isolation
Pleasure through symmetry
INTROVERTED
BATH HOUSE
1. 1. MANIFESTO FOR PLEASURE.
The building is quite simply not a machine, if it were it would be designed by engineers. The role of an architect is to inject a sense of pleasure into the design.
2. PLEASURE THROUGH SOLITUDE/ESCAPISM/INTROVERSION
We live in a surveillance society
There may now be as many as 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain: one for every 14 people, and a person can be captured on over 300 cameras each day. Surveillance is just one example of the ways in which we are monitored and exposed through technology.
An introvert is someone who is energized by being alone and whose energy is drained by being around other people. In this era of technological exposure, might people seek pleasure from extreme escapism and introversion? An introverted bath house will provide a sanctuary for over-exposed urbanites in search of ultimate escape.
The design for the bath house, develops in reaction to both the need to address pleasure in design (as a reaction to modernism) and the pleasure induced through ultimate escapism and solitude.
PLAN
Each layer of the plan signifies a step towards the ultimate state of passive pleasure- sleep. The outer layer is the most open most public space, this is where people to swim laps and exercise. These open spaces are the largest: their walls lean outwards and the ornament is the most prolific and complex here towards the top of the room, forcing the occupants to actively manoever their body to see it.
Spaces within spaces create a layered and interlocking plan, creating increasing levels of privacy and solitude towards the centre. The spaces become increasingly interlocked and subdivided increasing the level of enclosure and darkness. Ultimately each person finds their own pocket of space to sleep in, at the heart if the spa, the ultimate introverted pleasure state of relaxation and solitude.
D
SUPER-PRIVATE/SENDENTARY SPACE.
The spaces within the centre of the plan, are the most passive, sedentary and private spaces. They will be the smallest pockets of space in the plan, as they will be designed to fit just one person. This is where people escape to the ultimate state of passive and solitary pleasure: sleep.
The walls lean in, pinching at the top, to enclose the person within, the ornament is at eye level so as not to induce any strain on the person within. The ornament is the most simple and repetitive within these spaces.
C
PRIVATE/ ENCLOSED GROUP SPACES
The walls of the second layer from the centre open up slightly, so the occupants are less enclosed.
The ornament rises above eye level and becomes more intense inducing more activity within the space. Movement is implied between the figures as each one is slightly rotated, despite being the same.
B.
PUBLIC/ ACTIVE SPACE
The next layer, opens outwards as opposed to enclosing its occupant, it exposes them, marking the transition into more public/ group spaces. These spaces will be larger and more open, allowing more light within. The ornament too stops repeating and variation and intensity, forces the user to look around more and upward to understand the increasing complexity.
A
HYPER-ACTIVE/ EXPOSED/ OPEN/ PUBLIC SPACE
The outer layers of space will be the largest and most open and public spaces.
The form of the room is pinched at the bottom , opening up the top of the room, giving a sense of exposure: it is OPEN.
This is the most active layer, figurative ornament is all varied and placed far above eye level inducing the user to physically strain and move their neck to see the ornament above which becomes increaingly dense at the top of the room.
An
Introvert: someone who is energized by being alone and whose energy is drained
by being around other people.
EXTROVERTED PLEASURE SPACE: Dynamism, exuberance, open spaces, attention-seeking, prominent outward expression.
INTROVERTED PLEASURE SPACE: Passiveness, stillness, solitude, private, hidden space, restricted access, inward expression. E.g courtyard
The re-brief fictionally imagined Zaha's submission for the peak as an extroverted, pleasure-inducing manifesto for a new language of architecture, reflecting the exuberant program and the pleasure-seeking urges of contemporary man. The Peak literally is a climax, an explosion of form, an extroverted expression of pleasure.
My project will subvert this view on pleasure. I will take the peak and turn it in on itself. Introverted pleasure will be induced through different levels of lighting, privacy, solitude, stillness and hidden, pocket space. The women's spa will be an exclusive place of ultimate relaxation, solitude and escapism.
Each layer of the plan signifies another step towards the ultimate state of passive pleasure- sleep.
The outer layer is the most open most public space, this is where people go to swim laps and exercise. Courtyards within courtyards create a layered plan, alternating between wet and dry space, creating increasing levels of privacy and solitude as one moves in towards the heart of the building. The spaces become increasingly jagged creating pockets of space as opposed to open space, increasing the level of enclosure, privacy and solitude. Ultimately each person finds their own pocket of space to sleep in, at the heart if the spa, the ultimate introverted pleasure state of relaxation and solitude.
The rebrief highlighted my interests in creating a rich and pleasure -inducing approach to architecture, by injecting hedonism and human nature and an element of wonder into the design.
I want to take it further in the design of my final project by focussing on an architecture of deception. An anti-thesis to the literal and restrained spaces of modernism, in favour of hedonistic, discoverable and deceptive space, using distortion and optical illusion.
For all of humankind's history, we've been fascinated with hidden places. Hidden rooms and secret passages have historically served a purpose, most often, that purpose was to allow someone to hide or escape from some kind of danger. At other times, though, they have served a much more sinister purpose.
The most self-indulgent activities when pushed to the extreme often go against the rules of society and lawfulness and therefore require ultimate privacy. The design of space should not only induce pleasure but allow for it to happen.
The idea or manifesto for my project is to create not just hidden architecture but an architecture of deception, using distortion and illusion, to both conceal and enhance the experience of extreme and secret hedonistic activity.
I want to push the priest holes and HH Holmes' secret murder castle into the 21st century. I want to realise the ambitions of the batcave.
I will design the triad (Chinese mafia) headquarters in Beijing, who deal in and satisy all the most extreme desires of human nature. They operate in the realms of car theft, contract killing, drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering, gambling, prostitution and other forms of racketeering. They also counterfeit clothes, software and designer products and trade in endangered species.
The triad gangs are upto 30,000 in size and like other international drug traffickers who have their own armed forces, Chinese triads pursue and maintain significant resources such as their own stockpiles of ammunition.
The design will be a headquarters of
deception for triad activity. Just
like the speakeasies in America's prohibition period. The headquarters will
have a "front" business, or in this case activity, a public toilet, located in the heart of Beijing, which will be a portal into this underground world. The cubicles will act as a lifts into this world below, either voluntarily or involuntarily. It is a reference to the chinese stories of triad's kidnapping of girls in china's toilets to sell as wives in the countryside. Public toilets are also places of massive thoroughfare in Beijing, and the toilet is usually a place where people are both relaxed and vulnerable. It allows for the triads to capture people who are most unsuspecting and in a state of weakness whilst also allowing for members to enter their headquarters in the most unsuspecting of public places.
Beneath the toilets, casinos, brothels, ammunition stockpiles and all other triad activities will operate. The deeper into the plan one goes the more illicit the activities become and the more deceptive the architecture has to be for purposes of secrecy and security. It will be a base where triads can come together share common vices and discuss affairs. An illegal and hedonistic asylum for China's most wanted criminals.
