the uncertainty of change exposure

jesse husmann

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kansas city design centerurban design studio 2010-2011

2010.jesse husmannarchitectural photography

equipment.canon EOS rebel XS DSLRcanon 18-55mmcanon 75-300mm

printed in kansas city, mo

[mis]alignment 17

implied space 11

place 21

the topography of façades 15

texture and material 05introduction 03

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introductionPhotographs are inseparable from their points of view, and the framing of the buildings is substantially different from space to space and at differing times. The observer inherently determines what is viewed, but a frame captures a single moment in time. The number of views of a space multiplies as the frame progresses in a specific direction.

With photography, it is possible to express reality by capturing reality. The West Bottoms is a city at its most simple: empty, stripped-back from history, a living map. Indelible traces are the resulting images, abstract and fractured as they are, conveying our experience of the area.

Several aspects of the city are ex-pressed through the viewer’s eyes and by the observer’s place in time. The space is apprehended and the form of expression is captured by a single frame.

The photographs represented express the value and character within the West Bottoms as it relates to people in an architectural sense. The deteriorating buildings act as a backdrop to the lives

of everyday activities that persist against the strain of time. The grandeur of the city can be felt through the historical core of what once was and the remaining grid acts as an abstract order of the land, a set matrix to allow for change that continues to occur.

The West Bottoms exists in fragments, and the fixed objects create perma-nence; the voids allow change. Whether accidental or temporary, these spaces frame the buildings around them. The city no longer functions in the traditional way, before the birth of the stockyards and rail activity. Mixed-use is quietly taking hold, bringing a new sense of space into the city that still has a history in the physical sense. These spaces are independent but inseparable from the fabric that encloses them.

Texture and material introduces the physical depth of the surface, rendering an image of the façade. Implied space carries this notion of light and depth into the question of reality, of how a space is viewed. Implied space can be seen within the topography of façades. The varying depth on a surface creates a space all its own. Specific aspects on

a surface can each be photographed as implied space with variations on the depth of shadow. Misalignment introduces how the façade continues to change, with all the variations that can occur not just with depth and light, but the composition. These are all seen within the final series of place. Time and use are the constant of how a surface changes within the city.

The represented photographs allowed the process of discovery and under-standing–a deeper awareness of the intricacies present in the West Bottoms. They illuminate the past and present of a compelling story in the city–one of uncertainty and change.

While the conflicting composition of bricks reveals a past, the shadow results in the expansion of the frame outside the view, showing what remains.

texture andmaterial

The texture of a material represents a surface and can vary greatly from edge to edge, but also within the thickness of the plane. A texture defines the context of a material, its spatial presence, and in some cases, the built process.

Construction becomes an expression of form through the use of specific materials. The texture of that material directly affects the aesthetic quality of the building.

In the West Bottoms, the materials become the details of the buildings. Working with the nature of these materials expresses the historic quality of the structure. The materials are suited for their building forms, but time causes a direct effect on their permanence and appearance.

The deteriorating condition most buildings face in the West Bottoms is due to time and disuse. Buildings continually fall into disrepair and face losing their historical integrity. The reaction to the city is restructured through this aspect. The city becomes an industrial landscape, changing what we understand to be urban.

Urban decay emphasizes the lack of occurrence within the city. Materials change and deteriorate, forming a new texture on a façade or even a new space entirely. The creation of character resides in this concept, and the manner in which light renders this surface reveals a space; it depicts void as space.

Every work of art should reflect in its appearance the material as physical matter. … In this way we may speak of a wood style, a brick style, an ashlar style, and so forth.”

_Gottfried Semper

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“

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implied spaceDepth is denied in the existence of a frame at certain instances. The difference in depth is almost exact when all lines are parallel within this dimension. Space is implied rather than given a legible extent; the seemingly visible is made invisible and becomes implied, and the deliberate inclusion or exclusion has extreme effects on the space being implied.

Displacing reality as a reference point brings more interest to the object being focused on. The acuity within this space is disguised, displacing the space from the human eye. The conventions of perception are manipulated, and the flat intangible plane becomes a back-ground condition for the multiple identities contained within the image.

In the represented photos, the image may appear flat within a single frame, but a distinct element hints at the existence of actual space. Shadows reveal the depth within the frame, allowing the implied space to reveal a new dimension. An extrusion from the surface plane creates the shadow when light is cast at an appropriate angle, capturing reality.

Time or movement within the frame distinguishes reality from perception. These temporal conditions establish an interesting setting within the West Bottoms. The façades start to fabricate their own identity and inform the space being projected.

Two differences may be noted within this context: space existing outside the frame and space existing within the frame. A shadow cast within the frame focuses attention on the actual object creating depth. When the shadow ap-pears from outside the frame, focus is taken from the interior of the frame to the exterior–expanding the space.

Depth may also already exist within the frame, but appear nonexistent. Increas-ing the sharpness of the lens causes the background to merge with the foreground of the image, eliminating the space between. The space is therefore implied to exist without being exposed.

Wall thickness is revealed through the deteriorating condition of the building, but the space between the walls is implied through the lens of a camera.

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topographyof

the

The depth of a façade can be viewed at various instances, creating diverse accounts at a similar location. Light, objects, and the angle at which the façade is viewed inform the composi-tion of the frame. The shadow most often reveals the depth within an implied space, but rotating the view allows the façade to create a surface and space of its own. The built form can be viewed as the topography of the façade. The sharper the angle, the more the topographical extrusions become evident.

The topography of a façade begins with a single extrusion, which can be as simple as a warped brick or as com-plex as a lit billboard. No longer does the façade consist of a homogenous texture, but each extrusion is an object, an island fundamentally on its own. This multidimensionality affects the space it fronts and even how it is used, provoking thought to the function of this space.

Recognizing the juxtapositions or incidents within the topography allows the expression of urban patterns to emerge. Depressions within the façade

are subtractions from the space, acting as voids would in the matrix of a grid. Attachments are not only additions to the façade, but present multiple functions on the surface. The function resides in the object, expressing the use of the surface and in effect, creates a temporary use of the façade.

Separating the objects into single enti-ties starts to elaborate on the function of the façade, but the topography can only become a true expression when viewed as a cohesive whole. The built form becomes topography, and the conscious intentions of the photo disguise the space, expressing the façade as an extension of the building.

façades

The articulation of the ‘topographic’ surface on the façade accounts for the concurrent and conflicting requirements of permanence and erasure that characterize the city.

alignment [mis]

The West Bottoms has several unique characteristics because of the vast amount of historical buildings present. Due to the historical nature of these buildings, time and reuse have become apparent on the exterior. History has changed the face of the building, rendering the façade indifferent from when it was first constructed. The simple misalignment of windows hint at the structure of the building, but also the effect time has on the initial use.

The city rewrites the rules of functionalism. Windows in the façade become a response to the condition. The interior use of the building loses its initial permanence and is subsequently repurposed.

The misalignments of the windows function for the interior purpose of the building, disregarding the exterior fa-çade. Instead of a simple reading of the building, the unaligned voids offer inten-sification. The focus is no longer on the compositional layout of the façade; the misalignment draws the attention.

Misalignment also occurs in other instances within the West Bottoms. The

composition of the façade may be intact from its initial use, but a vertical difference in the voids offers an explanation to the past use of the building. The voids within the façade act as objects in a field or buildings on a grid. The difference becomes a notion of use and in effect, the façade becomes urban. The displacement of voids offers a new look into the repurposing of the city.

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place

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History has provided obvious implications in the West Bottoms, but the conditional form of the area is a cyclic restatement of a single theme: the uncertainty of change. The human presence within the West Bottoms continues to change and repurpose the city. Traces of the city have become urban artifacts, resulting in a developing area within an industrial landscape.

The cumulative notion of spatial episodes has provided the starting point of new program and temporary activities within the city. Former use is replaced with function, temporary or permanent, but active in the role it has taken.

The building façades and surrounding spaces studied within the represented photographs present vast uses parallel the architectural and historical detail they convey. In addition to being a large asset to the character of West Bottoms, these areas must be recognized and expressed, in all of their inconsistencies and unplanned attraction.

The territory of the city is expressed through thehuman presence established by a façade’s built form.