Understanding And Interpretation In Architecture - Part 1

AlexAnder Cheng

UnderstAnding & interpretAtion in ArChiteCtUre

Undergraduate Thesis: Fall 2015 - Spring 2016

College Of Architecture & Urban Studies

Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

AlexAnder Cheng

UnderstAnding & interpretAtion in ArChiteCtUre

speCiAl thAnks to FACUlty

to heiner sChnoedt

I will always remember to stomp my foot and say, “God damn!” whenever I witness something incredible.

to Aki ishidA

For all her hard work and willingness to write numerous letters of recommendation and talk about my work with me.

to donnA dUnAy

For the most memorable first d y of studio, which all began with a stick and a piece of paper.

to MArkUs BreitsChMid

Who taught me the importance of lineweight conventions.

to JiM BAssett

The first professor that helped me relax and be able to talk openly about y work.

to the FirMs i hAve worked with

Who taught me the value and necessity of constraints in architecture.

to henri de hAhn

Thank you for your support, kindness, and time in helping me throughout the year in all my endeavors.

to JACk dAvis

Thank you for making the College of Architecture + Urban Studies such a wonderful place to learn.

to My Brother, Christopher Cheng

For his critical naivety in his first year in ar hitecture school at Virginia Tech.

to My dog, sCooBy

Who always reminds me that every single day can be fun and exciting.

to My pArents, Andrew + lynn Cheng

For providing me the opportunity to explore architecture.

to My AUnt Ann

Who reminds me that family is always there to support you.

to the FACUlty oF the University

For the incredible volume and diversity of knowledge that I am able to draw from.

to My grAndpArents, t.C. + JeAnne Cheng

Who started the lineage of design practice in my family.

to My Closest Friends FroM hoMe

Thank you, for years of good times, laughter, and kindness.

to hilAry Bryon

Just as a “reminder-roo,” I cannot thank you enough for always being friendly, energetic, optimistic, and willing to help.

to the FACUlty oF the sChool oF ArChiteCtUre

For the wisdom, passion, and unique personalities that gives the school its identity.

to My grAndpArents, JiMMy + hope griFFin

Who always remember the important things in life.

to My Closest Friends in stUdio

You guys are the best and I could never have gotten here without you.

to My UnCle Mike And AUnt sUsAn

Who remind me that you can always do what you want.

to All stUdents oF the sChool oF ArChiteCtUre

Without your work around to steal from, my own work would suffer.

ACknowledgeMents

Contents

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239

BiCyCle CrAFt FACility: A progrAM to drAw FroM

A spACe For exhiBition

A spACe For design

A spACe For AsseMBly

reFerenCes

Appendix oF thoUghts

Part 2: testing the Question

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23

31

53

61

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101

QUestions & work

investigAting seMAntiCs

plACe & tiMe

Chronos & kAiros

interpreting thoUght

the historiAn & the interpreter

the legACy oF BUilding

relAtionships with the pAst

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loCk nUMBer two: A site to drAw FroM

on UnderstAnding & interpretAtion

Part 1: Drawing out the Question

9 ABstrACt

8 Understanding & Interpretation In Architecture

Abstract 9

ABstrACt

Architects never work with a tabula rasa, or blank slate. We always work from something, towards something. So, a question:

How do we interpret, draw from, and presence architecture relative to a collective, yet particular understanding within the art of building?

Understanding is a grounding of knowledge. It relies upon substantive works with essential traces of architectural knowledge passed on through millennia, thus allowing us to build upon the collective knowledge of building.

Interpretation is a particular reading of a work of substance, with one’s thinking projected upon, or drawing from, another’s understanding towards a means of building. Interpretation challenges past works and ideas, and allows one to attain another position of architectural understanding.

The spatial and tectonic questions of bicycle craft seek to test the relationship between understanding and interpretation in architecture through three building programs: Assembly, Design, and Exhibition, and find connection with ea h through a bicycle testing track.

As Juhani Pallasmaa has noted in Space, Place, Memory, and Imagination, “memory is the soil for the imagination.” In one way or another then, architecture is always a collection of conversations with the past. Thus, in one’s practice in architecture is one’s interpretation of what one knows about making architecture. Practicing architecture is a matter of which conversations one chooses to have with the past, and how one chooses to have those conversations interact to build in the present.

Every object and thought is a link in an endless chain and is thus connected with all the other links. Therefore, architecture can be thought of as a single strand in an infinite web of intellectual connections.

This thesis and the project are one link in an infinite number of links that bridge the gap between bicycle craft and the architecture that draws from it. Arguably, architecture can draw from almost anything - one simply has to build a connection.

Drawing out the Question

Part 1

QUestions & work

“What is your thesis, in three words?” - Hilary Bryon

“John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: Begin anywhere.” - Bruce Mau

“It is always about the question.” - Donna Dunay


How does a thesis begin? What are the methods and means of working? How do we “get at” what we are trying to explore?

The anxiety of beginning conceals a fear of a false conclusion...Perhaps it is a fear of working on something that is not worthwhile, or might not fuel future work. So how do you manage the fear of beginnings? Just get working!

By working on something you will unearth some morsel that will interest you and fuel your future discoveries. If you start with a fi ed end in mind, you foreclose the possibility of discoveries made along the way. So, work with the belief that the work you do holds truths that are multiple, and interlaced. Be confident that if you begin to unravel the fabric of the work, you will eventually tease out all of its multiple embedded meanings. With that knowledge, you can gain a liberating permission to start anywhere with your work.

Bruce Mau says to “avoid software” because everyone has it. Instead, he argues to “make your own tools” to work. Is there a working methodology - your own set of “tools” and ways of making architecture that you can bring to the work and use to explore your own question?

Working is always arbitrary at the beginning and constraints take shape as the work progresses. How do you work better? Do one thing at a time. Repeat yourself. You learn by memory, especially kinesthetic memory. Ask questions. Accept change as an inevitability. Admit mistakes that you’ve made - you’ll learn more. No one advances without feeling absurd or a failure every now and then. Say things simply. Say what it is. There is no need for frills. Get to the core of what you’re actually working on.

Often, we talk about the process of work or the mechanics of working – this topic cuts through any conversation about theory, the critical, the objective, the representation, the performance, and focuses on the practices themselves.

Question the question - if you reach a roadblock, it is more likely that you are asking the wrong question rather than you are pursuing a false answer. Try to simplify, for clarity, for rigor. Understand that ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment for success, and application of ideas need constraints, specificit , and critical rigor. And finall , smile! You get the opportunity to work on your own interests in architecture, so enjoy it!

on working

Questions & Work 17


Arguably, questions are inherent in architecture. A question in architecture is an inquiry that is posed in order to explore an interest or draw out knowledge, after which one can take a stand in responding to that question.

In this manner of speaking, a lot can be learned from Socrates. The Socratic Method of inquiry is a profound form of human discourse to question and defend one’s stance on a subject. The process involves asking questions to stimulate thinking and to consequently provoke ideas. These ideas are then debated and discussed, and eventually lead to hypotheses and formulations about a subject.

In The Thinker’s Guide To The Art Of Socratic Questioning, R.W. Paul outlines 9 types of Socratic Questions: Questions of Clarification; Questions that probe Purpose; Questions that probe Assumptions; Questions that probe Information, Reasons, Evidence, and Causes; Questions about Viewpoints or Perspectives; Questions that probe Implications and Consequences; Questions about the Question; Questions that probe Concepts; and Questions that probe Inferences and Interpretations.

Socrates is given credit for the development of a system of testing hypotheses through definition and induction. This is arguably the essence of the scientific method, which is a means of inquiry that is based on empirical or measureable evidence subject to specificprinciples of reasoning.

The ability to question is the ability to discover and explore knowledge that pertains to the topic of study. Without a question, there is nothing to test. Perhaps the most important question to ask of a thesis in architecture is, “What is the question?”

on QUestions

Questions & Work 19

question, n.

1. That which is enquired about, discussed, or debated.2. A point or topic to be investigated or discussed; a problem, or a matter forming the basis of a problem.3. A matter or concern depending on or involving a specifiedcondition or thing.4. A subject or proposal to be debated, decided, or voted on in a meeting or deliberative assembly, esp. in Parliament; the putting of this proposal to the vote.5. A (subject of) debate, dispute, or contention.6. an issue concerning disputed factual evidence.7. That which is asked.8. A sentence worded or expressed so as to elicit information from a person; a query, an enquiry.9. The action of inquiring, asking about, or contesting.10. The action of questioning, interrogating, or examining a person; the fact of being questioned. Formerly also: talk, discourse.11. The raising of a doubt about or objection to something.12. To cast doubt upon; to challenge, dispute.13. To come (also fall) into question and variants: (a) to become the subject of controversy or dispute; (b) to become an issue for discussion or consideration.14. In dispute, in contention; in a doubtful or undecided state.15. Under consideration, forming the subject of discourse; that is being discussed or referred to.

question, v.

1. To ask questions of; to hold a conversation with; (also) to discuss or debate with. Now rare (in later use arch. and poet.).2. To ask a question or questions of (a person), esp. in an officialcontext; to interrogate. Also in extended use.3. To ask a question or questions of a person.4. To examine (a person) judicially; to call to account, challenge; (also) to accuse of. 5. To challenge, defy (a person) to do something. 6. With interrogative clause or direct speech as object: to ask (a question).7. To enquire of or about something; to ask after.8. To enquire into or about (a matter); to investigate.9. To make a question of; to raise the question whether, if, etc.; to doubt, hold as uncertain.10. To feel or express doubt about; to raise objections to, challenge.11. To bring (a thing) into doubt; to challenge, threaten.12. To raise or voice (a doubt).

Source: The Oxford-English Dictionary.


A thesis is not simply what you are doing. Rather, a thesis, by its logical definiti n, is “a proposition laid down or stated, esp. as a theme to be discussed and proved, or to be maintained against attack; a statement, assertion, or tenet” [Oxford English Dictionary].

For example, a thesis is not stating, “I watched how old people play checkers.” Rather, a thesis offers an argument such as, “people draw from the lessons of old games, to invent new ones.” In this vein, we can draw from past ideas about forming beliefs, such as the Socratic Method, in order to formulate what a thesis is.

The basic form of the Socratic Method is a series of questions formulated as tests of logic and fact intended to help people discover their beliefs about some topic, seeking to characterize the general characteristics shared by various particular instances.

Essentially, the method poses questions, which people then reflectand respond to in their own way, in order to establish a position about a subject. It is clear by this method that questions and theses are intimately intertwined. This is what a thesis is.

In an architecture thesis specificall , we have to make sure that the thesis question is aimed directly at the discipline of architecture as the target of discourse.

on thesis

Questions & Work 21

thesis, n.

1. Prosody. Originally and properly, according to ancient writers, The setting down of the foot or lowering of the hand in beating time, and hence (as marked by this) the stress or ictus; the stressed syllable of a foot in a verse; a stressed note in music.

2. By later Latin writers (e.g. Martianus Victorinus a400, Priscian c500) used for the lowering of the voice on an unstressed syllable, thus practically reversing the original meaning; hence in prevalent acceptation (from the time of Bentley, 1726): The unaccented or weak part of a foot in verse (classical or modern), or an unaccented note in music; spec. in Old English prosody and in the prosody of other Germanic languages.

3. Music. per arsin et thesin (= ‘by raising and lowering’): used of a fugue, canon, etc. in which the subject or melody is inverted, so that the rising parts correspond to the falling ones in the original subject and vice versâ: the same as by inversion.

4. Logic. Rhetoric. A proposition laid down or stated, esp. as a theme to be discussed and proved, or to be maintained against attack; a statement, assertion, tenet.

5. A dissertation to maintain and prove a thesis (in sense 4); esp. one written or delivered by a candidate for a University degree.


What is the diagram for the thesis process? Is it a line on a journey?


“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” - Winston Churchill

“What unlikely sequence of events has led me to this point?” - Steven Johnson

“Architecture lies at the intersection.” - Carlo Scarpa


Words in the English language are a convention for communication and each carries with it an inherent meaning or definition. Even though word conventions and sentence structure operate within pre-defined semantics, often we overlay our own understanding of semantics on top of the universally accepted conventions. Such conventions are the clearest and most objective ways we have to deliver thought from one generation to the next. It is through these conventions of meaning that we are able to expand and build upon our particular understanding of the world.

In The Happiness Advantage, the psychologist Shawn Achor tells us that, “We have to recognize that we have control over how we choose to interpret the objective facts in our external world.” Essentially, everyone has the capacity to see the world through their own particular lenses. Everyone is able to see what they want to see and attend to, and what they do not. We are the architects of our own reality.

While a work of architecture existentially is a single, substantive, material object, it can be perceived in countless ways. The architecture means one thing to the architect, but can also mean something different to a visitor that confronts it. We all see architecture through our own particular lenses, as a result of our experiences and understandings. We interpret the meaning of a work of architecture within our locus of perception.


Investigating Semantics 25

Transition, n.

Pronunciation: /trɑːnˈsɪʒən/ /træn-/ /-ˈsɪʃən/ /-ˈzɪʃən/Etymology: < Latin transitiōn-em, noun of action < transīre , transit- (see transit v.).

1. A passing or passage from one condition, action, or (rarely) place, to another; change.2. Passage in thought, speech, or writing from one subject to another.3. The passage from an earlier to a later stage of development or formation.4. Change from an earlier style to a later; a style of intermediate or mixed character.

Interstice, n.

Pronunciation: /ɪnˈtɜːstɪs/ /ˈɪntəstɪs/Forms: Also 16 pl. intersticies.Etymology: < Latin interstitium space between, < *interstit-, participial stem of intersistĕre, < inter between + sistĕre to stand; compare French interstice (14th cent.).

1. An intervening space (usually, empty); esp. a relatively small or narrow space, between things or the parts of a body (freq. in pl., the minute spaces between the ultimate parts of matter); a narrow opening, chink, or crevice.2. An intervening space of time; an interval between actions.

Urban, adj. and n.

Pronunciation: Brit./ˈəːb(ə)n/ , U.S. /ˈərbən/Forms: 16 vrban, 16– urban.Etymology: < classical Latin urbānus (adjective) of, belonging to, or connected with the city (esp. Rome), living in the city, exercising authority, control, supervision, etc., in or over a city, having the style of the city, elegant and sophisticated, (of speakers or writers) polished or elegant in style, smart, witty, (of attitude or demeanour) having a townsman’s assurance, free from embarrassment, (noun) city-dweller < urbs city, large town, city of Rome (probably a loanword) + -ānus -an suffix. Compare French urbain (adjective) relating to, situated or occurring in, or characteristic of, a town or city (c1355 in Middle French in a translation of Livy, subsequently from 1624), that has authority over a town or city (c1355 in Middle French in a translation of Livy, in questeur urbain , after classical Latin quaestor urbānus : see below), courteous, civilized, refined (1378 in Middle French; rare before the 18th cent.), (noun) city-dweller (1762), Spanish urbano (c1250 in sense A. 1a, 15th cent. in sense ‘civilized, refined’), Portuguese urbano (a1595 in sense ‘civilized, refined’, 1702 in sense A. 1a), Italian urbano (14th cent. in sense A. 1a, a1342 in sense ‘civilized, refined’).

1. Relating to, situated or occurring in, or characteristic of, a town or city, esp. as opposed to the countryside.2. That constitutes or includes (part of) a town or city.3. That has authority or jurisdiction over a town or city.4. That resides in or has property in a town or city.5. A person who belongs to or lives in a town or city.

Memorable, adj. and n.

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈmɛm(ə)rəbl/ , U.S. /ˈmɛm(ə)rəb(ə)l/ , /ˈmɛmərb(ə)l/Forms: lME memorrable, lME– memorable.Etymology: < classical Latin memorābilis worthy of remembrance, in post-classical Latin also easy to remember (late 4th or early 5th cent.; late 12th cent. in a British source) < memorāre (see memorate v.) + -bilis -ble suffix. Compare Italian memorabile (14th cent.), Middle French, French mémorable (late 15th cent.), Spanish memorable (probably late 15th cent.), Portuguese memorável (16th cent.). Sense A. 3 appears to be unique to English. With use as noun, compare Italian memorabili literary memorabilia, and French mémorables

1. Worthy of remembrance or note; worth remembering; not to be forgotten.2. Easy to remember, able to be remembered; memorizable.3. Awakening memories of something; reminiscent.4. A memorable person or thing. Usu. in pl. Cf.

How do we think through and interpret conventional meaning?


Carlo Scarpa seems to presence every thought he has about the architecture in his drawings.

Peter Zumthor iterates upon an idea of hot and cold, showing an evolution of thinking.

Tom Kundig’s sketch finds connection between the human body, architecture, and nature.

Sketches and drawings expose the way someone thinks through architecture about an idea. An architect’s intention and understanding of architecture is revealed by his graphic traces.

Revealing Thinking


“Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race in the future years to come.” - Denis Diderot

The encyclopedia inherently embodies an idea about the collection of knowledge - it is a documentation of discoveries, so that nothing is forgotten and so that ideas can be distributed. Gathering knowledge allows man to build off of the shoulders of those before him and establish the essential conditions for development. The tree graphic made by Roth for the 1780 Encyclopédie promotes numerous fruits of knowledge, that vary in size, representing the realms of science known to humanity at the time.

The Encyclopedia - A Compendium Of Knowledge


How do we overlay and draw connections between conventional understandings of semantics upon our own architectural understandings of semantics?

Semantics Collage

plACe & tiMe

“The concrete things which constitute our given world are interrelated…A concrete term for environment is place.” - Christian Norberg-Schulz

“…man ‘receives’ the environment and makes it focus in buildings and things. The things thereby ‘explain’ the environment...” - Christian Norberg-Schulz

“...all cultures...ancient and modern, seem to have depended for their intrinsic development on a...cross-fertilization with other cultures.” - Kenneth Frampton


Both place and time find importance in architecture through their interaction with material. Alexander Spirkin in Reason in Revolt, Volume 1: Dialectical Philosophy and Modern Science - Part Two: Time, Space, and Motion, tells us that: “Time is an objective expression of the changing state of matter. This is revealed even by the way we talk about it. It is common to say that time “flows.” In fact, only material fluids can flow. The very choice of metaphor shows that time is inseparable from matter. It is not only a subjective thing. It is the way we express an actual process that exists in the physical world. Time is thus just an expression of the fact that all matter exists in a state of constant change. It is the destiny and necessity of all material things to change into something other than what they are.”

In this regard, it can be argued that place, as a material concept, is never static - it is constantly changing. If all matter exists in a state of constant change, then time serves as a mental construction for us to explain this ongoing phenomenon. Whether the material change appears fast or slow is all relative to the concept of time. In architecture, place is an obvious, yet significant topic of discussion. What defines “place?”

In his book Genius Loci, Christian Norberg-Schulz defines place as: “…a totality made up of concrete things having material substance, shape, texture, and colour...Places are hence designated by nouns. This implies that they are considered real ‘things that exist’, which is the original meaning of the world ‘substantive’.” Essentially, the purpose of architecture is to transform a site to become a place. This is done through the unearthing of embedded semantics that are extant in what Ernesto Rogers calls, the “preesistenze ambientali,” or pre-existing surroundings.

To protect the material qualities of the pre-existing surroundings, Kenneth Frampton argues for a Critical Regionalism - a contemporary architectural practice driven by tectonics, site responsiveness, and qualities of lightness and darkness. It strives to be multi-sensorial in order to establish a “regionally based world-culture” that does not abandon tradition, nor contemporary desires, but rather plays in the margins between. Material is one of the most essential, and sensitive, ways that architecture can find grounding in the place in which it is built.

Place in architecture can be thought of as an aggregation of physical contributions that continues to change and shape the place. Place layers material and event over itself again and again, like a collage. How is the physicality of place rendered and understood in the present, across the profound and numerous material presences of time?

plACe & tiMe

Place & Time 33

Older bridges in the Fujian provnice are tectonically expressive. Through local materials, they form spatial qualities of enclosure and porosity, and tectonic qualities of frame and span.

The Bridge School in the Fujian Province of China engages with architecture not only within but also outside of its local place and time through its means of construction and tectonic expression.

“Tulou” are indigenous to China’s Fujian province. Within its thick earth walls, a microcosm of a city is found. The contemporary lifestyle molds itself into the ancient forms of the place.


plACe

1. An open space in a town, a public square, a marketplace. Obs.2. Room, available space. Also: a space that can be occupied.3. Space (esp. as contrasted with time); continuous or unbounded extension in every direction; extension in space. Now rare.4. Ground contested by opposing forces in battle. Obs. rare.5. A particular part or region of space; a physical locality, a locale; a spot, a location. Also: a region or part of the earth’s surface.6. A piece or plot of land; a holding. Obs. Sc. in later use.7. A particular part of or location in a book or document. Now also: spec. a point or page reached in reading.8. A particular passage in a book or document, separately considered, or bearing upon a particular subject; an extract. Obs.9. A particular area or spot in or on a larger body, structure, or surface; an area on the skin.10. A particular spot or area inhabited or frequented by people; a city, a town, a village.11. Astron. The position of a celestial object on the celestial sphere, esp. allowing for the effects of precession, parallax, aberration, nutation of the earth’s axis, proper motion of the body, etc.12. A proper, appropriate, or natural position or spot (for a person or thing).13. A fitting time or juncture; an opportune moment, a suitable occasion; an opportunity.14. A position or station occupied by custom, entitlement, or right; an allotted position; a space or position allocated to or reserved for a person; spec. a space at the dining table, a seat on a coach, train, or aeroplane.15. To make room or space (for), to give way (to); †to give a position, station, or office to (ob .).16. To have room or occasion to exist; to have being; to exist (in, among, etc.); to be situated.17. To find acc ptance (with); to have weight or influenc , to take hold. Obs.18. To take up or have a position; to be present. Obs.19. To come into existence, come to pass, happen; to occur.20. To find place: to find room or occasion to dwell or exist, to have being (in something).21. In early use (also in the place): †right there; then and there, immediately (obs.). Now (chiefly N. Amer.): without moving from one’s original position, on the spot (freq. to run in place ).22. Present, at hand; in person.23. In its original or proper position; in position, in situ.24. Suitable to the place or time; appropriate, timely; in harmony with the surroundings, in one’s element, at home.25. Colloq. All over the place: everywhere, in every direction; throughout an area, in any or every part of an area; widely scattered; (hence fi .) disordered, irregular, in disarray, in a state of chaos.


Place & Time 35

tiMe

1. A finite extent or stretch of continued existence, as the interval separating two successive events or actions, or the period during which an action, condition, or state continues; a finite po tion of time2. The space of a specified period o time.3. Used in various expressions to indicate the extent to which an action, state, etc., takes place, occurs, or endures, or has always been the case, as all the time, much of the time, etc.4. possessive. The period during which a person or thing lives, occupies a particular position, is active in a particular sphere, exercises influence or dominance, etc.; (sometimes) spec. the lifetime of a person or animal. Also: one’s lifetime up to the present (esp. in in one’s time).5. The orbital period of a celestial object.6. A particular period in history, or in the existence of the world, the universe, etc.; an era, an epoch, an age.7. A period of time distinguished (generally by an adjective or other modifier) as being in the past, present, or future with reference to the present moment.8. A period considered with reference to its prevailing conditions; the general state of affairs at a particular period. In various phrases expressing adaptation to changing circumstances.9. A period considered with reference to one’s personal experience, characterized as being enjoyable, unpleasant, etc.; an experience of a specified kind; esp. in to have a good (bad, etc.) time.10. Considered as quantity. The amount of time which is sufficient, necessary, or desired for a particular task or purpose, or which is at a person’s disposal; the amount of time available.11. The fundamental quantity of which periods or intervals of existence are conceived as consisting, and which is used to quantify their duration.12. A measurement of the length of time taken to run a race, or to complete a journey or other event, esp. one in which speed is aimed at.13. A point of time; a moment in time; a space of time considered without reference to its duration; an occasion, an instance.14. A point in time marking or marked by some event or circumstance; the moment or point of time at which something happens; an occasion.15. Duration conceived as beginning and ending with the present life or the material universe, or as the sphere within which human affairs are contained; finite duration as distinct from eternity; the duration of the world or universe.16. Indefinite continuous duration regarded as that in which existence, and the sequence of events, takes place; the abstract entity which passes, goes by, or is consumed as events succeed one another, esp. in regard to the bringing about of anticipated developments, change, etc.17. A particular system of measuring or reckoning the length of the day and hence the passage of time.18. colloq. or slang. The prevailing aspect of affairs; the state of the case; the right or most effective way of doing something.19. A point or epoch in the course of a person’s life; a person’s age.20. A matter (also question) of time: said with reference to an event or circumstance that is thought certain to come about, or to resolve itself in a particular way, sooner or later.21. At all times; continuously, or for an extended period; in an unbroken succession.



Place + Time

It is evident that Place and Time are intimately, and inseparably connected. Time is a mental construct to describe the fact that all Matter exists in a state of Constant Change.

Time is inseparable from Matter.Place is formed from Matter.THEREFORETime is inseparable from Place. (1)

All Matter exists in a state of Constant Change.Place is formed from Matter.THEREFOREAll place exists in a state of Constant Change. (2)

Time is inseparable from Place. (1)All place exists in a state of Constant Change. (2)THEREFOREPlace = Constant Change because of Time (3)

Transition, n.

1. A passing or passage from one condition, action, or (rarely) place, to another; change.2. Passage in thought, speech, or writing from one subject to another.3. The passage from an earlier to a later stage of development or formation.4. Change from an earlier style to a later; a style of intermediate or mixed character.

From the defi ition, it is evident that Transition involves the construct of Time, as does Place. Urban conceptually, as a Place, is a physical manifestation of the interactions, and necessity of interactions of people over Time.

Place involves the construct of Time.Urban involves the construct of Time.Transition involves the construct of Time.THEREFOREPlace, Urban, and Transition share the construct of Time. (4)

Place = Constant Change Time. (3)Place, Urban, and Transition share the construct of Time. (4)THEREFOREPlace, Urban, and Transition = Constant Change (5)

The ephemeral nature of material is found within the relationship between place and time. Several conclusions about place and time are reached through a serial reasoning process. The process finds the connections between relevant architectural semantics, such as transition, urbanity, and interstitiality.

Deductive Reasoning

Place & Time 37

Interstice, n.

1. An intervening space (usually, empty); esp. a relatively small or narrow space, between things or the parts of a body (freq. in pl., the minute spaces between the ultimate parts of matter); a narrow opening, chink, or crevice.2. An intervening space of time; an interval between actions.

From the defi ition, it is evident that Interstitiality involves the construct of Time. In engaging “between”, “intervening”, and “interval”, Interstitiality also involves the semantics of Transition. Finally, both defin tions of Interstiality involve Space.

Interstitiality involves the construct of Time.Interstitiality involves the semantics of Transition.Interstitiality is defined y Space.THEREFOREInterstitiality is a Space that involves Time and Transition. (6)

Place, Urban, and Transition = Constant Change. (5)Interstitiality is a Space that involves Time and Transition. (6)THEREFOREInterstitiality is a Space of Transition, in Constant Change. (7)

Time-lapse, n.

1. An interval of time, esp. between two events; the passage of time; spec. an interval of time in the narrative of a play or film that is not represented in the action portrayed; a chronological break in the action.2. Time-lapse photography or cinematography (see Compounds); a facility for accomplishing this; a time-lapse film3. attrib. Designating the technique of taking a sequence of photographs at set time intervals to record events that occur imperceptibly slowly, so that when the resulting film is played at normal speed the action is speeded up and perceptible; relating to or used for this process. Esp. in time-lapse photography, time-lapse video.

From the defi ition, it is evident that Time-lapse involves the construct of Time. In engaging “interval”, Time-lapse also involves Transition. However, by definition, Time-lapse also introduces dynamism to perception.

Time-lapse involves the construct of Time.Transition involves the construct of Time.THEREFORETime-lapse shares the construct of Time with Transition. (8)

Place, Urban, and Transition = Constant Change (5)Time-lapse shares the construct of Time with Transition. (8)THEREFORETime-lapse, like Place, Urban, and transition is under a state of Constant Change. (9)

Time-lapse introduces dynamism to the interval of perception.Time-lapse, like Place, Urban, and transition is under a state of Constant Change. (9)THEREFORETime-lapse introduces a dynamic perception to Constant Change. (10)


It is important to the thesis to consider spatial qualities of places that result from the way place and time interact with materials. The city as an urban place can be seen as a collection of materials and spaces that are constantly being worked over and changed. As a result, the city gathers many vestigial spaces that perhaps reveal material and spatial qualities of the city’s past. What do the interstitial boundaries and thresholds of the city tell us about the way place has been shaped across time?

Vestiges Of Place - Interstitiality

Les Passages in Paris. An urban space can exist functionally, as a mid-block shortcut, yet can also exist as a place of leisure and entertainment.

Alleyway for powerlines in Vancouver. Gate-like powerline structures reinforces the utility of vestigial space formed between built mass.

A shop in a Chicago alley. Urban leftovers offer an architectural dialogue between two spaces: the space of the city and the space of the shop.

Retail alleyway in San Francisco. It becomes a quiet retreat from the typical urban public environment, yet is not lacking in excitement itself.

pAssAge retAil

Place & Time 39

Old Town in Stockholm, Sweden. The narrow building facades form the space for the street. The architecture is sympathetic to the narrow pedestrian street in scale and rhythm.

Skarpnack, Stockholm. The urban plan provides a public to private space of transition that allows communal spaces to escape the full publicity of the street.

Telc, Czechoslovakia. Narrow building facades form a town square. The public space is the intent of the architecture, which is reflected in the representation of the plan.

FACAdes CoMMUnity

A community in Skaade, Denmark. The odd clustering of homes form a private, intimate communal space that is public space to its residents.


How can the space between become a site to tell the story of the place over time? As the city evolves, how does the architecture grow to form the interstitial?

Interstitial As Site

Place & Time 41

What conditions of space defi e a place? The interstitial is often a vestige of urban growth, but can hold traces of built memory through time. How is the interstitial projected and experienced?

Interstitial As Experience Of Place


How does conventional meaning of place and time find connection with the architect’s subsequent semantic and graphic interpretation?

Place & Time Collage

Place & Time 43


Both the understanding and perception of place is different from one individual to another. Place can be understood as a collage - composed of an organization of various elements unique to its own time. Place continues to evolve over time, but the memory of what the place was in the past continues to be built upon and pulled forth into the future. Place and time are inextricably intertwined.

Interpreting Place

Surfaces of information. Surfaces of threshold. Surfaces of a rule & scale.

Urban flora. Built elements of threshold. Built elements for light.

Built connections. People to be remembered. People who make place.

Place & Time 45

New York City, New York.

Place involves the presence of man.

The Matterhorn mountain in the Swiss Alps.

Place is often found in nature.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris.

How do built objects manifest place and build meaning?


Collage, n.

Pronunciation: /kɒˈlɑːʒ/Etymology: French, lit. ‘pasting, gluing’.

1. An abstract form of art in which photographs, pieces of paper, newspaper cuttings, string, etc., are placed in juxtaposition and glued to the pictorial surface; such a work of art. Also transf., fig., and attrib.

Montage, adj. and n.

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈmɒntɑːʒ/ , U.S. /mɑnˈtɑʒ/Etymology: < French montage (1914 in this sense; 1604 in an isolated attestation in sense ‘action of ascending’, 1765 in sense ‘operation of assembling the parts of a mechanism to make it work’) < monter mount v. + -age -age suffix.

1. Film and Television. The process or technique of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole; a sequence or picture resulting from such a process.2. The act or process of producing a composite picture by combining several different pictures or pictorial elements so that they blend with or into one another; a picture so produced.3. In extended use: a mixture, blend, or medley of various elements; a pastiche, miscellany; (also) the process of making such a mixture.4. Produced or characterized by montage. Also fig. and in extended use.

Architecture can be understood as a process of collaging different thoughts and ideas of building.

How does the idea of collage bring meaning to architecture?

The idea of collage is evident in architecture. The way place is built over time can be thought of as a collage of different ideas over time made manifest through material. The rendering of place can be represented as as collage of different materials and meaning to make space. Even architects can be thought of as a collage of experiences and understandings that the architect draws from to build architecture.

Collage

Place & Time 47

We are a collage of experiences, knowledge, and thought. (El Lissitzky’s self-portrait “The Constructor.” - 1924)

Architectural thought can be projected through photocollage (Rendering by WWM Architects in London, England.)


Time-lapse, n.

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈtʌɪmˌlaps/ , U.S. /ˈtaɪmˈlæps/Etymology: < time n. + lapse n.

1. An interval of time, esp. between two events; the passage of time; spec. an interval of time in the narrative of a play or film that is not represented in the action portrayed; a chronological break in the action.2. Time-lapse photography or cinematography (see Compounds); a facility for accomplishing this; a time-lapse film.3. attrib. Designating the technique of taking a sequence of photographs at set time intervals to record events that occur imperceptibly slowly, so that when the resulting film is played at normal speed the action is speeded up and perceptible; relating to or used for this process. Esp. in time-lapse photography, time-lapse video.

Exposure, n.

Pronunciation: /ɛkˈspəʊʒjʊə(r)/Etymology: Appeared with composure , disposure , c1600; apparently of English formation, < expose v., by form-assoc. with enclose , enclosure , or other words in which the formation was etymological, repr. Latin -sūra : see -ure suffix1.

1. The action of exposing; the fact or state of being exposed.2. The action of uncovering or leaving without shelter or defence; unsheltered or undefended condition. Also, the action of subjecting, the state or fact of being subjected, to any external influence.3. Presentation or disclosure to view; public exhibition, esp. of goods for sale.4. The action of bringing to light.5. Photogr. The exposing of a sensitized surface to the action of actinic rays (see expose v. 5c); also, the time occupied by this action. Also attrib., as exposure meter n. a device that indicates the correct time to allow a film, etc., to be exposed.6. The action of bringing to public notice; the condition of being exposed to the attention of the general public, publicity. Now used esp. of publicity achieved through broadcasting or advertising. orig. U.S.

How does time bring meaning to architecture? What do we perceive over the passage of time?

How much time has to pass before we notice a change in our built environment? What is the threshold of change that we can perceive in the attention span of a lifetime? Time-lapse is a tool that helps us understand and explain the physical processes of change. The analysis and documentation of architecture can become a form of time-lapse, to explain the change in architectural thinking over time.

Time-Lapse

Place & Time 49

The evolution of the classical orders.

The evolution of the contemporary man.

Can we deconstruct place into essential, elemental components to form a cohesive, holistic experience that we see and perceive through our own, unique lenses?


4:00 AM 5:00 AM 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 11:00 AM

How is place experienced as a sequence of dynamic and still moments as one absorbs the surroundings? The idea of “time-lapse” acts as a parallel mechanism to describe the witnessing of a great passage of time, in a brief span of time. Like a long-exposure on a camera, place continues to imprint itself on the individual through the various senses.

Understanding Place Through Time

Place & Time 51

STASIS [collaging experience]

DECELERATION [exposing]

MOVEMENT [exposing]

ACCELERATION [exposing]

STASIS [moment of montage]


MOVEMENT [exposing]


STASIS [begin exposure]

STASIS [moment of reminiscence]




MOVEMENT [exposing]

DECELERATION [end exposure]

Chronos & kAiros

Chronos keeps track. ...Chronos is the world’s time. - Sarah Ban Breathnach

Kairos is transcendence, infinity, reverence, joy, passion, love, the Sacred. - Sarah Ban Breathnach

Chronos requires speed so that it won’t be wasted. Kairos requires space so that it might be savored. - Sarah Ban Breathnach


Chronos & kAiros

The ephemerality of place leads to an investigation of time. In the exploration of time, a duality is found between Chronos and Kairos time. Chronos is a measurable, quantifiable time. Kairos, on the other hand, is a qualitative, momentous time.

In building off of the relationship between place and time - time explains the destiny and necessity of all material things to exist in a state of constant change. It is this change in physical matter which contributes to the construction and montage of place.

The present built environment can be seen as an architectural record of history, as the city is a practice in iteration ad nauseum, and is seldom if ever subject to complete demolition to start anew. It then can be said that the vestiges of years and years of energy, thought, and time are ingrained throughout. It can be argued that the present physical environment embodies the built memory of the city.

The montage of place becomes a historical documentation of sequential event in Chronos time. To see place through the continuum of human observation, one stands in the moment of Kairos time, seeing in-between time, through the immediate, physical vestiges of time.

The chronological events of time can be presenced in a graphic time-lapse of a particular place. Can Chronos and Kairos be present together through synchronization?

Chronos & Kairos 55

Chronos, n.

Etymology: Greek

1. Refers to chronological or sequential time. Measured by the clock and calendar. It is orderly, rhythmic, and predictable. 2. myth. Chronos represented the destructive ravages of time which consumed all things, a concept that was definitely illustrated when the Titan king devoured the Olympian gods - the past consuming the future, the older generation suppressing the next generation.3. While kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature, chronos is quantitative.

Kairos, n.

Etymology: Greek καιρός right or proper time. 1. Fullness of time; the propitious moment for the performance of an action or the coming into being of a new state.2. In-between time. A moment of undetermined period of time in which something special happens.3. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature.

Diagram of Kairos time. A single moment of time with profound meaning. Can Chronos and Kairos be present synchronously?

Diagram of Chronos time. Events in Chronos time happen serially, but in architecture we cycle backward in order to move forward.


Over the course of millions of years, the Earth’s visible physicality transforms in a slow and relentless process of evolution.

1. CreAtion oF plACe

Features of the geography change, rising and falling in a battle of tectonic rift. Natural processes respond to the variations of geography, and shape it through time.

2. growth

5. ConstrUCtion

Remnants of the Earth’s processes are overwritten by humanity’s inherent thirst for progress. Physical manipulation of material alters the story of the landscape to become a wind farm.

6. the BUilt & BUilt Upon

Natural & artificial place coexist in time. Tbe artificial intervention presses upon the Earth. The man-made is built upon a pre-existing montage of natural events and processes.

How is place experienced as a sequence of dynamic and still moments as one absorbs the surroundings? The idea of “time-lapse” acts as a parallel mechanism to describe the witnessing of a great passage of time, in a brief span of time. Like a long-exposure on a camera, place continues to imprint itself on the individual through the various senses.

Understanding Place Through Time

Chronos & Kairos 57

A trickling stream finds a concavity in the rock, and evolves into a river. After millennia, the water evaporates, and only the absence of matter in the mountainside remains.

3. erosion

A road civilizes the natural landscape. Man imprints vision and will upon the Earth by paving the landscape for civilized travel.

4. Civilizing groUnd

7. doCUMentAtion

The scene is recorded: a memory, a story, a drawing, a photograph. The history of the place is traced through these media, and is referenced with reminiscence or recollection.

8. synChronizing

To see the place through the continuum of human observation, one stands in the synchronous moment of Kairos time, seeing in-between time, through the physical vestiges of time.

Chronos & Kairos 59


“I am what is around me.” -Wallace Stevens

“I am the space, where I am.” -Noel Arnaud

“Every profound artistic work surely grows from memory, not from rootless intellectual invention.” -Juhani Pallasmaa



According to Hanno-Walter Kruft, “the sources of our knowledge about architectural theory are polyvalent, and there is no justification for limiting the scope of enquiry.” By extension, I assert that other architect’s thoughts of building should certainly be a source of knowledge in one’s own practice. A diversity of perspective and perception can challenge conventional thinking in making architecture.

One question is: how does the reader interpret, draw from, and project his own thoughts upon the words of the author? Another: how do we learn from, and consequently apply the understandings of other colleagues in our own work? I propose that an architect must think through the thinking hand.

Selected thoughts are extracted from Pallasmaa’s essay entitled “Space, Place, Memory, and Imagination: The Temporal Dimension of Existential Space” in Spatial Recall. My thoughts are graphically superimposed upon the words of Pallasmaa to presence the concurrent intellectual interpretation of the author’s words, his understanding, on the relationship between memory and space in architecture.

Interpreting Thought 63

the historiAn & the interpreter

“As I see it, the experiments being made in contemporary architectural theory have their roots in history.” - Hanno-Walter Kruft

“In a nutshell: historical analyses of architecture are rarely unambiguous in respect of the theories that lie behind them.” - Hanno-Walter Kruft

“One who cannot remember can hardly imagine because memory is the soil of the imagination.” - Juhani Pallasmaa


the historiAn

The neutral, descriptive position is that of the Historian. According to Hanno-Walter Kruft, “In principle, a theory of architecture has no need to be recorded in writing, but the historian is dependent on such records. Hence for practical reasons, architectural theory is synonymous with its writings.” It is clear then, that with any documentation of past thought, we have to understand historical intentions and objectives in its own place and time before drawing comparisons and finding relationships between work in the present. This logic stands for understanding past built work as well.

The Historian seeks to find groundings of knowledge in the history of building that is unanimously understood across the discipline. He argues that we need solid, concrete, substantive evidence of building in describing architecture. The Historian tries to be objective relative to the projection of the past. However, it is very hard to divorce oneself from his own values and judgments upon learning about a concept in architecture. In reality, it is hard as a designer not to project one’s own thinking and experiences in trying to understand and analyze a work of architecture or architectural theory. Here, the architect makes his interpretation, and formulates a stance relative to past work.

The Historian & The Interpreter 81

the interpreter

While the Historian seeks to be completely objective in documenting and projecting the thought and work of the past, the Interpreter argues that one must take their own stance and make an interpretation in understanding a theory or past work of architecture to then bring to their practice or their thinking.

Architecture is often a subset of study within more expansive topics of theoretical discussion. So it can be argued that the Interpreter brings with him his experiences and knowledge of other subjects and finds connections between what he knows and the architecture he comes in contact with. To draw from past architectural thought, the Interpreter must have a profound connection to the Historian. He must have an understanding of how architecture was thought about at a particular time in the past and how it has evolved towards the present.

Kruft tells us that, “New systems emerge from debates on older systems; there is no such thing as an entirely new system, and if a system claims to be such, it is either stupid or dangerous. Thus architectural theory and the history thereof are synonymous, to the extent that the present position always represents a phase in the historical process.” To this point, it can be said that nothing is completely new. Everything we do in the present is derived from the past. Ways of thinking and making in the present are always caused by an interpretation, or derivative, of architectural conversations in the past.

Sometimes, architecture precedes an architectural idea. Other times, an architectural idea guides the architecture. Harry Francis Mallgrave suggests that, “The sketch or construction of a building may in fact precede the understanding of the novel idea contained within, and similarly, ideas may be put forth in speculation far in advance of the day when they are realized in practice.” There is an oscillating connection in architecture between substantive work and normative thinking, where one informs the other across different moments in time. The Historian and the Interpreter engage in a push-pull relationship that provokes the discipline of architecture.

The Interpreter struggles to ground his stance without concrete understandings of the past. Kruft explains the ambiguous nature of interpreting architecture of the past. “Gothic architecture, for example, has been interpreted in diametrically opposed ways, ranging from pure functionalism at one extreme to transcendentalism at the other...In a nutshell: historical analyses of architecture are rarely unambiguous in respect of the theories that lie behind them.” It is exceedingly difficult to extrapolate the guiding theories from existing buildings and architecture, because there are infinite ways of interpreting a built work. An architect’s writing then, according to Kruft, is one of the more direct and concrete ways to extract how architects think about architecture, because it presences their directed understanding.


Essential qualities of architecture echo throughout past civilizations and aggregate to form space. But the feeling of place resonates with humanity’s memory that represents many millennia of observation, practice, and documentation.

Humanity


Individual perception of space reveals different qualities of architecture to different people. Memories of space foster unique, individual projections of place through various representations.

Human


The Historian projects space through the most essential and objective qualities of architecture that harken back to the most archaic ways of making space. An alleyway in the city becomes a projection of floor , walls, and ceilings that come together to create depth.

The Historian


The Interpreter encounters the same alleyway in the city, but the space provokes the reflection of his own thoughts, values, and judgments upon the space to give it meaning. The interpretation of spatial qualities gives the space a richness of unique meaning to the visitor.

The Interpreter


“Architecture begins with the establishment of a horizontal plane...the floor is the “oldest” and most potent element of architecture.” - Juhani Pallasmaa

“The pieces of wood set upright have given us the idea of the column...” - Marc-Antoine Laugier

“...man put stone on the ground in order to recognize place in the midst of the unknown universe and thereby measure and modify it.” - Vittorio Gregotti



In Analysing Architecture, Simon Unwin explains the most essential characteristics of archaic civilization. “The most ancient types of place are those concerned with the fundamental aspects of life: keeping warm and dry; moving from location to location; acquiring and keeping food and water, fuel and wealth; cooking; sitting and eating; socializing; defecating; sleeping and procreating; defending against enemies; worshipping and performing rituals; buying or exchanging goods and services; story-telling and acting; teaching and learning; asserting military, political and commercial power; discussing and debating; fighting and competing; giving birth; suffering rites of passage; dying.”

Is this vein, is there some essential, collective, archaic memory of space that finds meaning in all civilizations? What are the substantive elements of making space that permeate architectural history? Walls, columns, floor , ceilings, stairs, doors, and windows seem to be the primary matter of spatial manipulation for the architect. Looking to the past reveals timeless systems of order, structure, material, and form. The historian’s position takes into consideration the thoughts, experiences, and perceptions of thousands of years of human engagement of space, harkening back to the most elemental origins of architecture in civilization.

Are there critical lessons from the most archaic legacies of building that we can draw from to project our own architecture? Can certain lessons be presenced through chronological montages of history to better reveal past understandings of building? As the architectural interpreter, what lessons are extracted from the montage of past work?

The Legacy Of Building 89

An understanding of the human body is drawn from to generate the form and proportion of ancient Greek column orders.


The plinth is a datum that separates the pure geometry of the temple from the ground, forming a controlled foundation for building. The columns trace the idea of the body’s procession through space around the statue of Athena. The presence of axial symmetry in the temple front guides the expectation of the spatial symmetry within.

The legacy of building finds application to contemporary architecture. Ancient ideas of structure, measure, geometry, order, and rhythm are evident in the Parthenon and other temples of Greece. However, a contemporary knowledge of construction with material economy as driving forces can generate a space with more light, and less mass.


Much like the Parthenon, the Thorncrown Chapel gives the promise of spatial symmetry and repetition of structure by exposing the structure at the entrance. However, it does not need the plinth to establish its geometric discipline. Rather, it engages the natural surroundings through its geometry and construction.

Stripping away the entrance facade, the nave projects similar spatial qualities to the Greek temple, drawing from the ancient lessons of structure, measure, geometry, order, and rhythm.


A contemporary richness of material form in making a wall is only found within the ruin of Hadrian’s Villa. Today, the spaces reveal different ways that walls have been articulated in material. A single wall in the villa presences opus incertum, opus reticulatum, and opus latericium - synthesizing different ways of building a wall across time. Of course, this current state also reveals a different understanding of the wall in its own time when it was clad in marble.

Hadrian’s Villa


Is the stair carved from the plinth or is added as a frame? Structure can contrast mass with lightness in a play between solid and frame.

Through materiality, structure can reveal the presence of the human body in space.The stair can be thought of as a scaled combination of stepped platforms and small blocks.

stAir strUCtUre

The work of Karljosef Schattner challenges past understandings of essential spatial elements of architecture. Is a stair carved from a solid mass, or is it a light frame that is additive? Is structure a play between mass and frame, or is it about the human body in space? Schattner is able to interpret archaic lessons of building and translates that knowledge into material and formal decisions in contemporary work.

Karljosef Schattner


The wall can be a protective face for something within. A threshold can be unified in a single frame, but also divided into different surfaces.

The wall as screen can give a suggestion of what lies beyond it.

wAll threshold

A protective threshold can also give a sense of visual transparence through subtraction.


Earth Opus IncertumAn idea about wall is formed through the most available form of natural matter.

The inquiry of built permanence is addressed in stone to construct walls that embody strength and endurance through time.

The most ancient ideas about permanence and durability guides earth walls to become stone. The thought of how the forces of the wall are transmitted into the ground informs the way stones are stacked, one atop another. Perhaps, thoughts of uniformity and measure lead to a stone module. And a regard for directionality and proportion within the module generates the brick wall, which continues to find its place in contempora y architecture.

The Legacy Of Wall


Opus Spicatum Opus Reticulatum Opus LatericiumThoughts about order + structure dictate the careful selection and orientation of stones to be placed in the wall.

Geometric uniformity is the successor of architectural order in the modulation of building elements.

Directionality + proportion are fused with prior ideas of modular construction.


Stonehenge2400 BCThe most primal expression of structure is erected in trilithons: two upright boulders support a spanning lintel.

Lion’s Gate1300 BC

Temple of Apollo700 BC

The post and lintel takes an architectural leap in function: to lift and support the weight of the wall to form an opening.

The method of construction becomes a question in the erection of massive Greek temples. Monolith uprights are broken down into modulated drums and stacked to form the column.

There are tectonic lessons extant in the most archaic structures: from the most essential understanding of a vertical support meeting a horizontal span at Stonehenge to elaborately proportioned Greek temples of the Corinthian order. Over time, structure gets thinner with a richness in formal articulation. Numerous interpretations, stemming from the essential post and lintel, lead to more refined positions of understanding in how material and proportion can come together to form structure.

The Legacy Of Structure


Temple of Hera550 BC

Parthenon447 BC

Erechtheion421 BC

Temple of Olympian Zeus200 AD

Weight of vertical load expresses itself in the formal qualities of the column. A gradual tapering of the diameter of each ascending drum creates an entasis that attempts to show the load on the structure.

The Doric order reveals the moment of force transfer through the column capital. The rounded head of the column grows a wider and rectilinear surface area to accept the overhead load.

The Ionic order provides a base for the moment of load transfer from the column to the stylobate. Thoughts about the proportions of the fluted column refine it into a slenderer shaft with less taper.

Corinthian columns embody the traces of thinking in the marriage of nature and civilization through the flowering capitals, which are most celebratory in the unity of column and beam.


“...temporal layers interact; what is perceived interacts with what is remembered, the novel short circuits with the archaic.” - Juhani Pallasmaa

“We have to recognize that we have control over how we choose to interpret the objective facts in our external world.” - Shawn Achor

“The first act of architecture is to put a stone on the ground.” - Mario Botta



Three architectural relationships with the past are proposed and tested: Contact, Dialogue, and Interpretation. Each relationship carries with it a particular mode of engaging the genetic foundation and evolution of building. All three attempt to get at the essences of architectural memory, but through different forms of interaction. Each seeks to take a moment in crucial but ephemeral moments of civilization and find something ete nal.

Relationships With The Past 103

Contact is exemplified by Karljosef Schattner’s Diözesanmuseum in Eichstätt. Old and massive wood beams are supported and protected by a steel truss intervention.

The Carré d’Art by Foster + Partners is in rhythmical and structural dialogue with the historic Maison Carrée across the plaza.

The walls of the Ningbo Museum by Wang Shu are the architect’s interpretation of how traditional materials of a locale can compose a wall.


The direct engagement with the architectural artifact is essential to this relationship. The abilities and aspirations of contemporary architecture supports and preserves the embedded meanings and qualities of the old. An old wall rests in an urban spatial vestige. Thin columns that are cross in plan disappear at the joints of glass floor panels. The thinness of contemporary structure below contrasts with, yet directly supports, the mass of the wall above.

Contact


The space is a vestige of urban growth around it.

Cross shaped columns disappear at the joints of glass panels.

The old wall is a ruin. Events over a period of time have changed the state of the material.

How do the surfaces of the city change as one travels towards the architectural artifact?

A square grid of glass panels seemingly float to support an old wall.

A reveal distinguishes the presence of the wall relative to the glass floor.

The ruined artifact is coarse, textured, and contrasts with its contemporary surroundings.

What are the paths of circulation through a vestigial space of the city?

Another reveal draws the line between the vestigial space and the rest of the city.


The memory of architecture is expressed through a dialogue between an architectural artifact and a didactic, contemporary commentary upon that artifact. The “new” demonstrates what can be done today in the same space of the old. The thickness of the old wall becomes a stair that is volumetrically framed in steel members. A space for interaction between the old and the new offers a direct juxtaposition between form, mass, construction, texture, rhythm, and other essences of architecture.

Dialogue


How does the rhythm of the new interact with the rhythm of the old?

The landing proposes a moment of awareness and pause to presence the rhythm of the old wall.

The filled openings of the old is in rhythmical dialogue with the landings of the stair.

What is the diagram for the interplay between a massive old wall and a frame?

Can the interaction of old and new be between a massive stone wall and a thin, glass partition?

What are the diagrams for the architectural discourse between past and present?

The vestiges of a wall can sometimes indicate traces of prior use and form.

The treads of the stair yield to the frame, which defines the spatial volume of the stair.

The stair is didactic - it demonstrates the logic of solid and void held in the old wall.


The memory of architecture becomes a critical discourse and analysis - a commentary on the legacy of material, form, and meaning. Rather than an architectural paraphrasing, this relationship seeks contemporary interpretation and projection of architecture drawn from the lineage of building. Architectural interpretation asks what the work draws from and how to draw from it in order to build relative to the present place and time.

Interpretation


How do materials meet in contemporary constructive methods and connections?

What is the contemporary interpretation of how the vertical meets the horizontal?

The archaic idea of the body in space reflects the way we make material decisions.

A change of material reveals the interaction between man and structure.

Can interpretation also be a discourse between old and new?

What is the site that deepens the meaning of architectural interpretation?

The contemporary interpretation presences old ideas such as procession, order, and structure.

Can we break down the understanding of how the vertical might meet the horizontal?

How are material and form the most meaningful in contemporary structure? Does context matter?

Understanding And Interpretation In Architecture - Part 1

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