The Interior Stroll
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Objective Adapting an existing Plattenbau block in central Berlin, the research project examines the social opportunities enabled by architecture composed around the movement and pause of people within a residential building. Promoting an alternative approach to urban dwelling by concentrating on the role of circulation space, the objective was to densify an existing site while addressing issues of aging residential population, the increasing isolation in single occupant dwellings and the need for improved collective living and community within urban environments. Private apartments are retained, prioritising the benefit of shared community spaces weaved through the block instead. The study underlines the underutilised opportunities of circulation spaces as collective space along with its more practical functions. The belief is that the proposed adaptions and additions to the building around these communal spaces will establish a more eclectic and sustainable community long term. Position The position is informed by Robin Evans critique of the corridor and the correlating rise of private space it produced, reducing sociality. A text by Robert Yudell examines the diminishment of movement within architecture, coining “frozen speed” which he describes as passive non sensory movement caused by lifts and corridors. Both texts highlight the damaging legacy of circulation spaces driven solely by the efficiency of movement without consideration of the corporeal and social qualities of architecture. The elongated circulation routes proposed in the study represent a rejection of this efficiency of movement in favour of experience, providing moments where people may stall or stop along their route through the building, interacting with a view, a person or an object in the process. The project was initially conceived as a Contemporary Urban Palace, referencing English Country Houses such as Hardwick Hall. Trough this palace is a circulation route consisting of communal rooms people navigate through, each constructed as polyvalent space. In place of program, spatial variations are developed based on scale, light, fabric, internal/external climate and positioning, which the inhabitants can then adopt and adapt as they wish. Movement and pause set up through the project is not by prescribed route, but by an unfolding progression of space to move through - an invitation to move and explore - to stroll. Laying out space in this way aims at drawing people through space to various points, increasing opportunities of interaction in the process. The polyvalent approach is carried into the apartments themselves, where existing apartments are opened up using column, beams and voids to allow greater autonomy to the occupants in sub-dividing space to their individual needs. Method The design research developed the new end blocks and overall circulation before focusing more specifically on the movement through particular spatial sequences as explored through film. Sergei Eisenstein suggested that through film, mobility could be experienced from a static position, unlike drawings. He believed architecture to be films predecessor, using Auguste Choisy’s Acropolis perspectives to illustrate his theory. Eisenstein contrasts two "paths" of the spatial eye: cinematic, where a spectator follows an imaginary line among a series of objects and architectural, where a person moves through a series of experiences absorbed through vision. Following Eisenstein, Giuliana Bruno states how film inherited the picturesque garden tradition where scenes were revealed through the movement of the spectator invited through the spaces. Film reinvented this practice using the screen to replace the physical act of movement. David Leatherbarrow maintains that Loos’ Raumplan and Corbusier’s free plan also emerged from the picturesque garden, indicating how strolling was key in the development. The spatial sequences being designed in the project aspire to this same idea, avoiding direct movement in favour of meandering routes where scenes unfolded. That film evolves from this spatial tradition reinforces its suitability for creating spaces of a similar nature. The design films construct a narrative shifting between moments of observation and of observed as different individual’s movements and views overlap in space. Through the film, individual moments were isolated, adapted, added and removed as a way of thinking through the movement sequence as a whole, enabling critical reflection and design exploration to evolve in unison. Discoveries and adjustments from the films were then translated to plans and sections, along with more detailed drawings exploring the construction of thresholds and openings. Findings The study highlights the collective potential of architecture that provides a framework for human experience, displaying how alternative circulation spaces designed around elongated movement and pause facilitates this experience. Prioritising a polyvalent framework sets up generous space for residents to adopt, providing a degree of autonomy for the private apartment space paired with collective ownership of the communal spaces to enact a sense of ownership and community within the building. This is particularly appropriate in housing developments where unidentifiable future occupants are to be considered. The benefits of film as a design tool is shown throughout the research and resulting proposal. Implementing film proved valuable in developing the architecture in relation to movement and pause, views, occupation, duration and positioning people. While traditional drawing methods can design for movement from one space to another, they fail to fully capture the rhythm and experience of how a person may move and the duration of occupation within space. Rather than projecting movement and occupation onto static plans or models through the minds eye, the film allows both to be considered more accurately. Numerous possibilities exist for expanding the method further including site and context studies, use of larger scale models and screen projections, and use of sound. Unique opportunities for collaboration exist also where overlapping multiple views and movements from multiple designers into a single narrative can be considered. The method also has potential to promotes more cross disciplinary research collaborations between film, media and architecture fields. Collaboration with film and media experts would enable greater freedom to explore the design and creative possibilities of film. Within institutions, film and architecture could find mutually beneficial platforms to collaborate also. Giuliana Bruno queries, “what interesting cultural practices would emerge” from such collaborations. |
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