Imaginary Boundaries

Atelier Carla Juaçaba

Second year design atelierProfessor Carla Juaçaba

Assistants: Valentina Merz, Lara Monacelli Bani, Matt Bailey

Autumn Semester 2019Università della Svizzera Italiana

Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio

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Introduction

Exercise 1

Workshop in Porto

Exercise 2

Calendar

Bibliography

Imaginary Boundaries

Comparison of houses

Jean Guy Lecat

Villa Le Lac, Le corbusier

Autumn Semester 2019

Contents

Aldo van Eyck (1918-1999)

There are multiple kinds of boundaries: Geo-Political boundaries, Natural boundaries, Imaginary boundaries, “Safety” boundaries, etc. Most of them are part of our imagination and they become real because there is a project or a desire.

We will consider different kind of boundaries and context to work, where a project could connect parts that were detached for some reason. Or connect simple natural boundaries to the city.

A project, no matter the scale, has a gradation from public areas, semi-public areas to private areas. This gradation begins in the single-family house. As Villanova Artigas says “a house is the beginning of the city”.

Although the public areas are more evident on a Collective housing project, it is also intrinsic in a single family house, in its visuality and connection to the city.

We will rescue the original expression “House is a City and City is a House” that exists since antiquity with different variations, since Plato, Leon Battista Alberti, Aldo van Eyck and Villanova Artigas. Despite different historical moments, they all have a similar approach regarding the sense of scale, stressing the correspondence between the whole and the parts.

For Van Eyck and Alberti, what is necessary is that the house, as the city, should be able to breath “A square [...] that breathes”.

The first semester will focus the apparent simple program of a single-family house, where the “living” will be discussed until its essentiality. Expressivity of the materials will be regarded on the first steps of student´s imagination: a simple drawing can be understood as an action that carries an intention of materiality. The intent is to bring consciousness to the students of these actions and its relation to a specific site, social context and cultural heritages. A precise understanding of sustainability will be discussed, and its relations to a site and economic conditions.

Imaginary Boundaries

Sverre Fehn, Sketch of Villa Rotonda, 1984

Lucio Fontana, Italy (1899-1968)Richard Serra, Paris, France(1938)

4

Fontana

Semester Images

Semester Images

Fredensborg Housing, Jørn Utzon, Fredensborg, Denmark, 1962-1965Casa Pentimento, Al Borde Arquitectos, La Morita, Quito, Ecuador, 2006

Boundaries

Semester Images

Semester Images

Boundaries

“The history of contemporary architecture is inevitably multiple, multifarious even; (…) a history of new languages which, having abandoned all hope of arriving at absolute and definitive words, have striven to delimit the area of their particular contribution.

Obviously, the intersection of all those manifold histories will never end up in unity. The realm of history is, by nature, dialectical (…) It is that dialectic that we have tried to pin down, and we have done what we could not to smooth over conflicts which are cropping up again today in the form of worrisome questions as to what role architecture itself should or can have. It is useless to try to reply to such questions. What needs to be done, instead, is to trace the entire course of modern architecture with an eye to whatever cracks and gaps break up its compactness, and then to make a fresh start, without, however, elevating to the status of myth either the continuity of history or those separate discontinuities.”

Manfredo Tafuri and Francesco Dal Co. L´architettura contemporanea, 1976 (Studies in Tectonic Culture, Kenneth Frampton)

The intent of first exercise is to be a reflection about the diversity of contexts, culture, languages and tectonic culture through the analyzes of single buildings in terms of their mutual architectonic and sociological attri-butes.

Student teams of two or three, will be required to analyze pre-selected pair of building. Where the cultural density of the works will be compared, considering their type and context (geographical, historical and social context), the distinction between public and private, the route through the spatial sequence of each building, structure and materials, and other components.

Each group will present the projects with photos, drawings with plans and sections and a model. It is important to highlight some details of the house, in model or drawings, that will be discussed with each group.

These teams have to color-code the respective plans into public (blue), private (yellow), semi-public (green), and service (gray) and at the same time to trace the main routes of circulation through the space, thereby following the movement of the subject from the moment of entry to the ultimate goal or goals of the spatial sequence and different context analyzing, distinction between public and private, route, membrane/structure, connotational summation.

The pedagogical intention of this exercise was to sensitize students to multiple levels at which the built envi-ronment is able to convey cultural significance and to reveal the ways in which a spectrum of different values and references are incorporated into each work. Compare two houses of similar size, particularly when each had been designed from a different ideological standpoint.

First Exercise

A diagrammatic case study on The Municipal Orphanage, Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam

1 - Type/Context:It is possible to regard the relationship between the type and its context as an interaction between culture and nature, location, topography, geology, climate, orientation, prevailing wind, and pre-existing visual views of panoramas as into which the building is implanted.

2 - Public, Semi-Public, Private and Service:The distinction between public and private envisages the public realm as a space of public appearance, a space potentially conducive to action within the body politic. The antithesis to this is the private realm which in this domestic setting is also the space of procreation and nurture.In addition to this basic distinction there are two other categories. The first of these is semi-public space, which is the transitional space that mediates between public and private, while the second is the necessary provision of service space, broadly speaking, service.

3 - Route/GoalRoute and goal is the concept that all buildings are structured about a promenade that allows the significance of the total work to unfold in time via a progression through the spatial sequence.

4 - Structure/MembraneThe basic structure is of skeleton frame or load bearing masonry construction, it will be expressed and/or suppressed to different degrees. This relative expressivity and articulation are a consequence of the degree to which the skin of the building reveals and/or conceals its fundamental structure.

5 - Connotational SummationEach case is analyzed from different standpoints, including their material constitution and the components from which they are built up.

Comparative analysis

Houses to be studied

1.Vila Matilde, Terra e Tuma, São Paolo, Brasil, 2011

Villa Le Lac, Le Corbusier, Corseaux, Switzerland, 19232.

Maison Cook, Le Corbusier, Paris, France, 1926Casa Vertical, Alexia Leon, Lima, Peru, 2005

3.The Norrköping House, Sverre Fehn, Norrköping, Sweden, 1963-64

Marika Alderton House, Glenn murcut, Eastern Arnhem Land, Australia, 19944.

Esmeraldina House, Solano Benitez, Asuncion, Uruguay, 2002Casa Curutchet, Le Corbusier, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1949

5.House in Moledo, Souto de Moura, Moledo, Portugal, 1998

Upper Lawn, Alison and Peter Smithson, Wilthsire, UK, 19626.

House with three courts, Mies Van der Rohe, unbuilt, 1938Two houses in Santa Isabel, Ricardo Bak Gordon, Lisbon, Portugal 2011

7.House in Baltshal, Pascal Flammer, Balthsal, Switzerland, 2013

Tanikawa house, Kazuo Shinoara, Nagano, Japan, 19748.

Casa Millan, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, San Paolo, Brasil, 1974Casa das Canoas, Oscar Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1953

9.Schindler House, Rudolf Schindler, California, USA, 1922

Casa Pentimento, Al Borde Arquitectos, Quito, Ecuador, 200610.

Casa de vidro, Lina Bo Bardi, São Paolo, Brazil, 1951Tree house, Lacaton Vassal, Cap Ferret, France, 1998

Pilotis House, Go Hasegawa, Kanagawa, Japan, 2014 11.

Casa Gerassi, Mendes da Rocha, São Paolo, Brasil, 1989Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier, Paris, France, 1931

12.Parents House, Richard Rogers, London, UK, 1960

Les Jours Meilleurs House, Jean Prouvé, France,195613.

Casa Arzalé, Marco Zanuso, Arzachena, Sardegna, 1964Observatory House, Tatiana Bilbao, La Blanca, Mexico, 2008

14.Can Lis house, Jorn Utzon, Mallorca, Spain, 1971

House in Anavyssos, Aris Konstantinidis, Anavyssos, Greece,1962

Casa Vila Matilde, Terra e Tuma, São Paulo, Brasil, 2011-15Villa Le Lac, Le Corbusier, Corseaux, Switzerland, 1923-24

Couple 1

Maison Cook, Le Corbusier, Boulogne-sur-Seine, France, 1926Casa Vertical, Alexia León Angell, Lima, Perú, 2015

Couple 2

The Norrköping House, Sverre Fehn, Norrköping, Sweden, 1963-64 Marika-Alderton House, Glenn Murcut, Northern Territory, Australia, 1990-94

Couple 3

Esmeraldina House, Solano Benitez, Asunción, Paraguay, 2002Curutchet House, Le Corbusier, La Plata, Argentina, 1948

Couple 4

House in Moledo, Edwardo Souto de Moura, Moldedo, Portugal, 1998Upper Lawn Pavilion , Alison and Peter Smithson, Whiltshire, England, 1959-62

Couple 5

House with Three Courts project, Mies Van der Rohe, 1938Two Houses in Santa Isabel, Bak Gordon, Lisbon, Portugal, 2011

Couple 6

House in Balsthal, Pascal Flammer, Balsthal, Switzerland, 2013Tanikawa House, Kazuo Shinohara, Naganohara, Japan, 1972

Couple 7

Casa das Canoas, Oscar Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1951Casa Millan, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, São Paulo, Brazil 1970

Couple 8

Schindler House, Rudolf. M Schindler, West Hollywood, USA, 1922 Casa Pentimento, Al Borde Arquitectos, Quito, Ecuador, 2006

Couple 9

Group 10

Casa de Vidro, Lina Bo Bardi, São Paulo, Brazil, 1950Tree House, Lacaton Vassal, Cap Ferret, France, 1998

Pilotis in a Forest House, Go Hasegawa, Kanagawa, Japan, 2014

Casa Gerassi, Mendes da Rocha, São Paulo, Brazil, 1991Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier, Poissy, France, 1931

Couple 11

Couple 12

Parents House, Richard Rogers, London, UK, 1960Les Jours Meilleurs House, Jean Prouvé, France, 1956

Casa Zanuso, Marco Zanuso, Arzachena, Sardegna 1964Observatory House, Tatiana Bilbao & Gabriel Orozco, La Blanca, Mexico, 2008

Couple 13

Couple 14

Can Lis, Jørn Utzon, Mallorca, Spain, 1972House in Anavyssos, Aris Konstantinidis, Anavyssos, Greece, 1962

“Theatre is very similar to architecturebecause both involve an event,

even if it happens or not”

Aldo Rossi, Scientific Autobiography, 1981

Our trip to Porto is an invitation to see our discipline through another discipline.

It will be four days of workshop Jean-Guy Lecat that has woked 25 years as technical director and set/space designer for Peter Brook.

Jean-Guy Lecat was charged by particularly with research, the transformation or creation of more than 200 spaces throughout the world. Some of them are still kept as: Harvey-Majestic Theatre and La MaMa in New York, The tramway in Glasgow, The Gaswaerk in Copenhagen, The Mercat de les Flore in Barcelona, Boulbon quarry in Avignon, Nationnal Theatre in Strasburg, Bockenhaimer depot in Frankfurt etc.

Through the theatrical event it is possible to understand space by its ability to prevent or enable a vital step to another level of perception. The many possible ideal forms, ephemeral, unexpected forms that a teacher can have, has become an important part of his research.

There was a dissatisfaction with the conventional theatre and the same question was always faced:

What should a theater look like?

The workshop is an essential exercise to understand how to elaborate a “program”. It is a simple question that can be used for any occasion.

In our course the question is:

What should a house look like?

After the workshop students will make this question differently. The contact with Peter Brook´s language and the work he has done over the years in theatres is a provocation and will put us in constant question.

Workshop, 10-13 October 2019Jean-Guy Lecat

Casa da Arquitectura, Porto

Peter Brook, CBE, 1925

At a time when the traditional venue of theatrical work is responding less and less and when new venues at the same time turn out to be difficult to work with for directors who experiment other relationships, the whole of theatrical space today is concerned with a new freedom, a new field of movement, purified from artistic conventions that were obstacles to its revelation. Harmony in theatre space is difficult; there is duality between to turn to fast to technology which is a temptation and the sensation that we are missing something essential. Nothing should be there without a reason. Text, actors, sets, costumes and lights give most of the information we need but the very place where the play is done act differently. The space must favor concentration and encourages the right relationship with the actors and an encounter with the performance. It should be generous, neutral enough, be a source of energy, an active crucible with a poetical dimension favorable of imagination of the audience. In matter of space we must thing how to contribute to the production: what is missing? What is not right in given space? Do we understand the acoustic? Do we need a set or the space itself can be the necessary set? Should we transform or extend the space...

One of the effects of theatre is that it reminds us something fundamental, which is that in human life nothing is forever. This is something obvious, but it is easily forgotten, and human beings try to fight against reality by holding, fixing, blocking, the architecture itself roots man in space and time, rather than accepting that the whole life is a coming and going, and everything is changing.

The idea of this workshop is to discover that telling it not only a question of words. Human beings, costumes, set, lighting, video, sound and walls have their part to the play. We must take away those things that create distance; in simplicity anything it’s an importance, then we can see with more intensity things that otherwise cannot be seen. During the workshop I will compare these two fundamental theatre forms. One will let all the technology be developped in a specific space, the other one will bring all energies in the middle of the audience.

Jean-Guy Lecat, Workshop presentation, 2019

Workshop, 10-13 October 2019Jean-Guy Lecat

Casa da Arquitectura, Porto

Doing a theatrical performance means trying to:

“Represent life, to perceive it in its greatest intensity, to tender in both a realistic and poetic form the milieu where life is taking place. The point of performing is for everyone to feel that they are in a living

space and that they feel better. If you go into a theatre and afterwards feel worse, then the performance has not had its only possible benefit, which is to make you feel better, consoled, relieved, or, ideally, more

courageous, given new vitality”

Magic Flute, Peter Brook, 2011

Theatre practitioners permanently research and invent work that projects it into the future, even if they don’t know the limits of this future. Directors, actors and architect are confronted in their creative work by their knowledge and by the unknown of this constantly renewed adventure. How can the risks, which are necessary in the creative process, be taken without jeopardizing the production that is about to be born?The great danger comes when the artist proceeds either from practical considerations or from purely abstract ones. One has to say that a theatre cannot be and must not be considered as a temple; a theatre space is a emporary, practical space.

Jean-Guy Lecat’s workshops don’t have a real pedagogical message, but he wants to open the ears and eyes of the participants. He wants to show and teach them things, not tell how they are supposed to be. He believes too many theatrical workers are trying to do too many things at once.

The key word is simplicity.

There is an overflow of ideas in the theatre.

WorkshopCasa da Arquitectura, Porto

Jean-Guy Lecat

“We think that we’re doing something extremely clear, but the result is the exact opposite”

Jean-Guy Lecat interview with Reija Hirvikoski 2006

Site and old picture of Villa Le Lac, Le Corbusier, Corseaux, Switzerland, 1931

After the first exercise that consider multiples way of actions, we will work on the same site where Le Corbusier did one of his first project. It is a small house designed for his parents that was recently added to Unesco World´s heritage. It was designed between 1923-24.

The proposal is to work on the same site, with approximately the same size, and the same clients - except that each one will consider their own parents - but almost 100 years after.It is a wonderful situation of boundary between the lake and the city.

Second ExerciseHouse for your parents

“The simple house will shelter the last days of my father and mother after a hard working life. Musician mother, father in love with nature”

Le Corbusier (1887 - 1965)

CalendarAutumn Semester 2019

Bibliography

Kenneth Frampton, Studies of Tectonic Culture (1995), Cambridge Massachusetts, MIT Press

Aldo Van Eyck, The City as Playground (2002), Amsterdam, NAi Publishers/Stedelijk Museum

Jean Guy Lecat and Andrew Todd, The Open Circle: Peter Brook’s Theatre Environments (2003), Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom