29.02.12

I drew on top of work by Rachel Whiteread today. I'm thinking about the way empty spaces may have implications to their surroundings, and vice versa. I want the old form's lines to inform the new form.. but want to explore how the old might inform the new in other ways, too... through texture, void and solids, openings, views, angles, experience

precedents

Cities:
-Dresden

-Munich

-Nuremburg

-Beruit 

-Chicago

-Napier

Actual projects:
-Rachel Whiteread, House, 1992

-Ground Zero, Libeskind (?)

-The Matadero project in Madrid, Andres de Gabriel

-Enric Miralles & Benedetta Tagliabue, Renovations to Santa Caterina Market, 1999

-Peter Zumthor, Kolumba Museum 

-Aldo Rossi

-Carlo Scarpa's interventions around the edge of Venice 
(what I probably need is more precedents that are in series, dealing with different sites across a city, like this one) 

-Gordon Matta Clark 

-Zozer's funerary complex, Imhotep 

possible sites

Durham Street Church

High St/Cashel St corner

High St

Provincial Chambers

+ am thinking about the Sherbourne St house, and the Caxton Press building destroyed in the September quake

Caxton Press building

Sherbourne St house

Sherbourne St house

28.02.12

Why are ruins so captivating, so haunting? Do we only realise what is precious after it starts showing signs of decay? Is it only precious when it starts to decay? Or when it is gone, and no longer exists in the material world? Is this just nostalgia?

The Unknown City

'we must treat the city and architecture as a ‘possibilities machine,’ as what Lefebvre refers to as an oeuvre – a place of artistic production in its wildest sense, where the “texture” of the city is its creation of time-spaces through the appropriate activities of its inhabitants... architecture then emerges not as an object, not as a thing, but as a flow - or, more properly, as a flow within other flows - the merely apparent pattern of a much more complex set of forces, dynamics, and interrelations within the spaces of the city'

-> So what happens when this 'flow' is disrupted by an earthquake? We are not dealing with a typical situation here. 

thinking...
1. explore approaches, figure out my own approach (in theory and in design), precedents, research on cities/city development and 'natural' life cycle of buildings
2. explore approach in relation to site(s) (design), multiple solutions? one in more depth?
3. how that may apply to the bigger picture, the city of Christchurch. Implications.




Jenny Harper, director of Christchurch gallery

Thinking of heritage buildings, we might consider the potential of a ‘picturesque ruin’. What about the Provincial Chambers? It was a wonderful building in a wonderful location, but is attempting to repair or restore it after such a catastrophic failure inappropriate and even vulgar? The ruined stone portion might be retained, stabilized and made safe, but then left empty, with seating for people with wild flowers growing, a memorial experience that could help
explain the earthquake to our children and grandchildren for years to come: “This is what happened in 2011”. It’s a
prime candidate, with proximity to the river. Perhaps there may be a great new public library and an outside café
opposite. It could become a memorial place, a site of contemplation which is within and part of the city. There is
something compelling about the idea of walking in the city and walking past one or two picturesque ruins. It may be a strategy to consider.

 

topic proposal form

And so I handed in my first 'milestone' today... 

feeling kinda weird about it. 

Its like here we go now kids... its really starting. You're a thesis student now.

Appendix 3: Thesis Topic Form

M. Arch. (Prof.) THESIS TOPIC FORM ARCHDES 796

Student’s Name            Abigail Thompson

ID 4888748

Thesis Topic An Architectural Response to the Ruins of Christchurch

Topic Outline

I propose to investigate an architectural response to the ruins of Christchurch, and in doing so, explore issues of memory, heritage and history. I will seek to do this with a solution(s) to specific site(s), and with this outcome, speculate solutions, or a methodology, which might be related to sites and buildings throughout Christchurch. 

Hans Eckstein (German architectural writer, 1897 - 1984) stated that "Not everything is worth preserving, not everything (is) able to be reconstructed.” Each building restored, each new one erected or demolished, continues the historical narrative of the city. Who gets to decide what is worth remembering, and what is better to be forgotten? Substantiating history through architecture is a pattern secured by European nation making.  To have a heritage, and proof of it through material traces, affirms identity. Furthermore, our memories are constantly in dialogue with our physical environment, and so the local people of Christchurch will learn a new way of interaction with their streets, local buildings and homes.

The city of Christchurch is currently in a state of flux, the fate of many buildings being decided. Discussing the issue of memory and buildings is also about how to rebuild the bond between people and the place, the sites of memory able to act as vehicles for shared memories underpinning social cohesion. I will explore these issues with architectural responses to the history and memory of one or more specific sites (chosen after a trip to Christchurch in March) within Christchurch. I hope from my design investigation and process I will derive a methodology or approach able to be applied to other sites throughout the city.  

Readings/key references

- Bevan, Robert. The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War. London: Reaktion Books, 2006

- Borden, Iain, ed The Unknown City : Contesting Architecture and Social Space. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001

-Knauer, Lisa Maya and Walkowitz, Daniel J Memory and the Impact of Political Transformation in Public Space. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004

-Rosenfeld, Gavriel D. Munich and Memory: architecture, monuments, and the legacy of the Third Reich. Berkley: University of California Press, 2000

Design Project (see thesis topic)

Site Description          A site, or series of sites, yet to be chosen, to be in Christchurch

Design Issues to be addressed

-Treatment of memory, heritage and history in Christchurch, NZ

-A cohesive understanding of Christchurch as a city, and of a city’s development and patterns

-The city as a manifestation, or palimpsest, of individual and collective memory

The relationship of my project to memorials/ reminders of the past

-Demolition/ preservation/ revitalization, restoration vs erasure

-A building’s lifespan

-A position on the past: do we have a responsibility to heritage? Working in, on, around, ruined ‘heritage’  

-Who gets to decide what heritage is, and what is not?

-Precedent cities (such as Munich, Detroit) that have recovered after extensive damage, their methods, successes and failures

-Place-based identity

-The community’s needs in regard to the ruined sites, emotionally and practically

Critical Question         How does one architecturally respond to the ruins of Christchurch? (In reference to

memory, history and heritage)

meeting with Lynda Simmons: potential supervisor #3

-look at sites from scholarship trip to Christchurch, Jan 2011 as potential thesis sites
-need to email some people about getting into the red zone, find out when next council meeting is
-theory and design as two wheels, never quite touching, only sometimes in sync
-look at your previous experience and research, think of them as avenues
-moral issues: should we really retain this building if it might kill people, for the sake of memory?
-if we simply restore, is that honoring the people who died? or would that be pretending it didn't happen?
-look at theses from last year
-design right from the start, even in preliminary research stages

pre-liminary thoughts 2

-every decision you make is based on your theory as a reference point
-reference point brought about by research

-destruction/reconstruction as symbiotic

-own glossary in thesis?

-depths, levels, suraces, textures

-process; through model-making? thinking through the hand

-tentative attempt at thesis title: A Study of Approaches to Damaged, Destroyed and Demolished Sites in Christchurch City Since the Earthquakes of 2010-11

-look at parasite buildings by Carlo Scarpa, Sverre Fehn and Enric Miralles - insertions of new structures into existing ones

pre-liminary thoughts 1

look at:

http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=SFi4zVXee7EC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=pereira+roders+re-architecture&source=bl&ots=oMBtEoGZJC&sig=6rouBQ92cWPWo3qwOt-iYgKy1CY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QJIxT9LJAe6OiAfX9Jz-BA&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=pereira%20roders%20re-architecture&f=false

-In the wake of destruction, ruined and abandoned buildings, we see that our built enviornenment is not permernant, but it is architecture's legacy that continues long after its physical form is destroyed, by its ability to actively participate in people's own collective memories

-larger issues of memory/ history/ movement

-other examples, learning from their successes and failures (Munich, Detroit, Dresden, Nuremburg, Hiroshima, Cologne, Catheridge)

-Christchurch context (I have learnt that I do want a site(s) here!)

-choose sites of different types: totally flattened, ruined, damaged

-Their grief associated with certain sites, but no guilt, at least not like in German cities... therefore I should not be interested in treatment of Nazi buildings resulting from their guilt

-acknowledge each building and site should be treated differently. Not one single approach, or series of rules. So what am I doing? demonstrating a personal approach? revealing values and an example methodology or process from which to look at as an example? 

-not interested in memorials themselves, but allow that the nature of revitalising a building or site (if this is what my research leads to) creates a living memorial of the former building and memories

-memorials = reminders so that tragedy may be prevented from again recurring...
BUT
reminders in this context: to remember loss of people, buildings, and the nature and event of earthquakes.

reminders cannot prevent the tragedies from re-curring. Christchurch people have those reminders, in the form of after-shocks every day. Do they need further ones?