THE SUBTLESUBSTANCEOF ARCHITECTUREPARIS-OTTAWA FALL STUDIO

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�e Subtle Substance of Architecture was a studio from the Winter 2011 Azrieli

Visiting Critic studio at Carleton University, Ottawa. Under the supervision of

Paris-based Architect/Landscape Architect, Alessandra Cianchetta, the thirteen

week long studio examined urban design strategies that concentrated on the

night context.

�e investigations began with speci�c conditions in Ottawa (Exercise One,

Exercise Two) and then later with Paris (Exercise �ree). Simultaneous to the

exercises was an exploration into the massive iconic central site of La Défense,

Paris. �ese explorations eventually led to a �nal design proposal that is

presented here by students, Stephanie Uy, Sophie Lamothe, and Vance Fok

titled Inverted Night Myopia.

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EXERCISEONEREVEALING A SITE

THE DEFEAT OF PAR(KING)

PLAYGROUND CONSTRUCT

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A SITE

INTERSECT FROM VOIDNESS TO FULLNESS

THE DEFEAT OF PAR(KING)

PLAYGROUND CONSTRUCT

INTERSECT FROM VOIDNESS TO FULLNESS

THE DEFEAT OF PAR(KING) A critical zone in this region where parkings are in majority is

the Maloney West Boulevard in Gatineau where a large mall

and many superstores are located. This commercial zone is

juxtaposed to a residential neighborhood. During day this

area is very occupied with the goings and comings of teenag-

ers from their home, the mall, the school and from many

people in the neighborhood. On the other hand, at night after

the closure of shops, this place is absolutely unsafe and

unfrequented.

The aim of this project is to bring back vegetation in this

neighborhood where asphalt and cut grass dominate. This

could be made by modifying the site so it will become an

attractive location that would be suitable for day and night

activities, moreover during all seasons. A crucial aspect for

enhancing this site is vegetation ~ diverse, indigenous or

exotic, permanent or movable, and that could be real or

artificial. At the same time, safety should be improve by

bringing more people to this location. This should be realized

by the possibility to this site to accommodate a range of

activities ~ such as small scale shows and exhibitions,

artistic installations and gardens, without forgetting people

loitering. The answers to these problems should be resolve

with a prototype that could be integrated along all the Malo-

ney West Boulevard or other similar parkings across the

National Capital Region.

Maloney West Boulevard

Réflexions colorées. Hal Ingberg. Reforf Gardens - International Garden Festival in 2007.

PLAYGROUND CONSTRUCT As density develops and contemporary merges with histori-

cal on settled infrastructures, unoccupied areas emerge as

ambiguous space with undefined program. These interstitial

spaces lack inhabitable qualities but prove to provide open

opportunities for interactions. Construction sites, in particu-

lar, exist as connecting temporary unoccupied spaces during

the night. The characteristics of these sites produce unwel-

coming chaos and unpleasant soundtracks during specific

times of the day.

Lebreton Flats, an emerging new development, an unoccu-

pied lawn at the end of Sparks Street and Pooley’s Bridge

offer the potential to facilitate an audience for potential activi-

ties that can attract visitors. All three sites provide opportuni-

ties of transformative interventions that can produce a

playground atmosphere in order to contrast the seriousness

and chaotic nature of construction. Participants are asked to

temporarily transform Lebreton Flats into an urban

playground with temporary and permanent conditions. To

transform the space is to consider the evening quality that is

currently dormant in the areas. A strategy of light installations

that play within the context of the theme should be situated to

create an interactive playground of light, sound, nature.

Lebreton Flats

Lebreton at night. Photo by Author.An evening view overlooking Lebreton Flats from Bronson Avenue and Sparks Street. Dotted circles indicate proposed locations for art interventions.

INTERSECT FROM VOIDNESS TO FULLNESS

The intersections of large streets have become a landmark

point of navigation for urban experiences. They are often

(intangibly) larger than the establishments that exist on them.

This null-place is indicative of how North American society

has placed emphasis on the asphalt streets over the human

experiences that could evolve from the same context.

The opportunity lies not in committing a 'war against the car'

but in the prominent name that these intersections have

naturally evolved. The physical void in the name of the

intersection gives fertile grounds to a place that everyone is

and is not familiar with. The ubiquity and strategic locations

of these entities gives way for optimal access for all inhabit-

ants of the city.

Increasingly our neighbours have become as familiar as

strangers. This urban alienation can be attributed to the lack

of situations that overlap in the lives of the respective

individuals. The evolution of societies finds much progress in

environments that facilitate an openness between people,

where fear of 'the others' is extinguished. Given that our

current state does not connect the dots, this brief looks to

draw the lines.

Intersect from voidness to fullness asks to create more

situations to connect individuals with their neighbours and

other inhabitants of the city. And in doing so, will redefine the

asphalt dominated urban experience with one that is about

openness and connectivity.

Bronson & Somerset

Horizon. Jorinde Voigt. Possible colors for the horizon; Position; cardinal point; external center I-VII. Berlin 2010.Voigt's approach to conceptual drawing involves a certain precision and spontaneity relegated by a set of parameters - an apt example of a technique that could be applied to faceless road intersections. Voigt describes her drawings as accessible as: ‘You can enjoy it without being able to read the score.’

EXERCISE TWOURBAN STORYBOARD

ALTERED PERCEPTIONS

HAS NO SHADOWS DOES NOT KEEP TIME

JUNGLE KING

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ALTERED PERCEPTIONS(2:22)

HAS NO SHADOWS AND DOES NOT KEEP TIME(2:20)

JUNGLE KING(2:52)

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EXERCISETHREENIGHTTIME GARDEN

(FUN)TIONAL

INFLATE, LIGHT, HAIR

SHIPPING CRATE TREES

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Site photos of existing garden

(FUN)CTIONAL The “Jardins de l’Arche” at La Défense is a protected garden

that possesses great importance to the French. This type of

garden is designed in order to create a promenade. I find sad

to see that few only benefit this urban oasis. How can we

transform this kind of garden in a more attractive and practi-

cable place?

(Fun)ctional aims to metamorphose the garden without

changing its essence. Thereby, some seatings are created to

attract the public to stay and rest in the garden. No major

changes will disturb this iconic garden.

The seating allows greenery to grow through a metal mesh

mainly on the façade where the spacing is larger than on the

seat. Some light is intended at the inside perimeter of the

seating in order to create light beams across the garden. A

mix of day and night plants will be inserted in these seatings

so the life of the garden will change and also continue even

during the night time.

MFO Park. Raderschall Landschaftsarchitekten + Burkhardt & Partner. Zurich.

Courtyard Garden. West 8. Utrecht.

The (Fun)ctional Garden.

INFLATE, LIGHT, HAIR Hairs grow out of the ground. They inflate. They grow. The

oblique, grotesque, yet beautiful balloon like creatures

inflate. The rubber coated fabric holds the encased air. What

is this. They get bigger and grow taller than you are. They

cloud your sky. You run, you hit, you crash, you laugh, you

forget, you are reminded that you have a body.

The birth of your waking life only comes from the release of

your body. In this current condition our built environments

treat the body as a digit in the system, and in the process has

forgotten what satisfies the organic entity. Inflate, light, hair

asks that the body be returned into the world and allow it to

ruffle in the wind and haptically engage its surroundings.

The lit hairs ripple with the wind.

You become the wind, the hairs reciprocate.

You create the wave

and then you become the wave.

The landscape becomes alive.

You become the landscape.

You come into life.

Release your body.

Tall grass on a windy day. Photos by Author.

The Inflate Light Hair Night Garden.

SHIPPING CRATE TREES Reappropriated wooden shipping crates are to be added to

the existing garden in order to function as light lanterns and

provide seating area during the night. Premature trees are

introduced with their roots incased in 900mm deep recycled

shipping crates. LED lights are enclosed to have light emerg-

ing through the cracks of the crates. Smaller sized shipping

crates encasing more LED lights will be grouped in different

combinations to provide seating area. This is to encourage

visitors to pause and rest during their journey through the

garden so that they may enjoy the glow of the light emitting

crates and surrounding area.

The trees and seat crates make it simple to place and

remove through the use of forklifts that will be in use for

ongoing construction activity adjacent to the garden. These

modified spaces and pathways are to create a unique experi-

ence in the garden through materiality and use of light.

Wrapped Trees. Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Foundation Beyeler and Berower Park, Riehen, Switzerland, 1997-98.

The Shipping Crate Trees Night Garden

PHASEONEOPTIONS

OPTION 1

OPTION 2

OPTION 3

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OPTION 1 pulls will be designed in the form of follies strategically

placed along the path to persuade visitors to pause and

interact. The distorted path will maintain a linear view

towards La Grande Arche with the Jetty as it projects above

and across the main axis of the site.

La Seine River is a landmark that travels through Paris and

the main axis, naturally dividing and coming together but

generally swayed by flow and gravity. This option intends to

explore the concept of union/division, and distorting the

linear path from the ‘pulls’ of social activity and conditions

that draw visitors to change their orientation. These magnetic

OPTION 2 Olafur Eliasson ‘Your making things explicit’. Thereby they

will play the role of a Ariadne’s thread to lead the public to the

Arena 92 and the main plaza. Largest folies will be placed at

the ends of the site in order to attract people across La

Défense and also to entertain the Arena visitors before and

after the event. This way, the flow of the crowd will be

reduced. These large folies will be expressing the opposition

of La Grande Arche as the two pyramids of the Louvre are

opposing each other.

This proposition presents a continuation of the historical axis

of Paris, going from classical buildings and landscape at the

Louvre Museum to contemporary buildings and landscape at

La Défense. Along the historical axis, the landscape is

mostly flat, without stairs. In La Défense, a large ramp will be

used to make the transition between the levels. As the

Louvre’s pyramids, a repetition of folies will be created on the

site. They will be placed along the main circulation in order to

indicate the path. These folies will be lighted, as the work of

OPTION 3 to that of the breath. The organic cloud gives similar patterns

to that of humans escaping the crowded space. Option 3

looks to draw that cloud into it's inners and give something of

a special experience for it's users.

Drawing light inspiration from the spatial experience of the

Eiffel, Option 3 looks to interpret the tower as a transport of

the body and mind from the everyday into a reactionary

practice. The project comes about when the stadium

releases it's users and injects them back into the city, similar

PHASETWODESIGN DEVELOPMENT

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Possible interactive urban furniture

Plaza del Torico by Fermín Vázquez ArquitectosPormetxeta Square by MTM Arquitectos Grand Canal Square by Martha Schwartz Partners

Circulation studies

Plaza del Torico by Fermín Vázquez ArquitectosPormetxeta Square by MTM Arquitectos Grand Canal Square by Martha Schwartz Partners

Early paving layout options

PHASETHREEFINAL

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INVERTED NIGHT MYOPIA

INVERTverb

put upside down or in the opposite position, order, or arrangement

NIGHTnoun

the period from sunset to sunrise in each twenty-four hours

MYOPIAnoun

the quality of being short-sighted

+52.0

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+57.5 +60.5

+55.0

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HOTEL & SHOPS

FOLLY #3

STUDENTRESIDENCE

HOTELFOLLY #1

ARENA

GROUND LEVEL PLAN

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METRO ►

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LA DEFENCE

HOTEL & SHOPS

FOLLY #2

ARENA

UPPER LEVEL PLAN

SECTION (LONGITUDINAL)

SECTIONS

PEDESTRIAN FLOW

GROUND LEVEL PLAN

GROUND LEVEL PLAN

WHEELED PEDESTRIAN FLOW

GROUND LEVEL

ELEVATED LEVEL

GROUND LEVEL

ELEVATED LEVEL

REGULAR TRAFFIC

FIRE TRUCK ACCESS

POINTS OF CONCENTRATION

VEHICULAR MOVEMENT

GROUND LEVEL PLAN

GROUND LEVEL PLAN

BUILDING LIGHTING

STREET LAMPS

GRASS MOUNDS

EXISTING GARDEN

SOFTSCAPE

LIGHTSCAPE

GROUND LEVEL PLAN

GROUND LEVEL PLAN

STAIRS & RAMPS

ELEVATORS

FOLLIES

URBAN FURNITURE

GROUND LEVEL PLAN

GROUND LEVEL PLAN

FOLLIES & URBAN FURNITURE

ELEVATION CHANGES

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PAVING OPTIONS

PAVING MATERIALS

BENCH

RESIN COVERED PAVING LIGHT

LIGHT POLE

WHITE SMOOTH FINISH CONCRETE

GREY, RED AND WHITE GRANITE PAVERS

WHITE SQUARE STONE PAVERS

CONCRETE PAVING SLAB WITH EXPOSED AGGREGATE FINISH

GRASS

PINE MULCH

PAVING DETAILS

600MM

RESIN COVERED WHITESURFACE

INTERGRAL ASPHALT PAD

LED DIODE LAYER

PAVING STONE OR BLOCK

3M LEAD

PAVING LIGHTS ARE TO BE PLACED ALONG THE SITE THAT FOLLOW A NON LINEAR PATH AND DISTORTS THE STRONG REPETITION OF DIAGANAL LINES THAT LEAD TO LA GRANDE ARCHE.

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100MM

EARTH

600MM CAPPING LAYER

300MM DEPTH OF WASHED 20MM GRADED AGGREGATE

GRANITE PAVING

PERMEABLE JOINT FILLED WITH 6MM WASHED AGGREGATE

URBAN FURNITURE

GREY, RED AND WHITE GRANITE PAVERS

GREY, RED AND WHITE CONCRETE SLAB

BENCHES ARE FORMED FROM RAISING PAVING TILESPLAN OF BENCH

INVERTED LIGHT POLES ARE LOCATED ON GREEN MOUNDS AND REGULAR LIGHT POLES ARE LOCATED ON PAVING WITH AGGREGATE FINISH. THE POLES ARE MADE OF PERFORATED STAINLESS STEEL TO EMIT LIGHT ALONG THE FORM.

ELEVATION OFLIGHT POLES

TWO PLATFORMS TO IMAGINE

TWO BOXES TO POP

TWO STAIRWELLS TO PIANO

THREEFOLLIES

TWO PLATFORMSTO IMAGINE

the upper platform, a stage. Some storage can be find inside the projection wall between the two exits.The stage’s structure will enable projections all over it. As well, it will bring colours and light to the folly in contrast to the steel mesh and columns of the lower level covered with greenery. Easy access will be provided all around the folly, a ramp will make the transition between the ground and the platform level. This folly will transform through the uses, the time of the day and the seasons.

The first aim of this folly is to hide the highway ventilation and the two emergency exits to the West of the site in order to create a refined design. Thereby, ad platform hides the ventilation and a large volume encloses the two exits. This volume supports a large projection wall used for displaying art works, advertisements or performing artist’s publicity. The second aim of the folly is to welcome a various amount of activities, such as markets, exhibitions, spectacles and performances. The lower platform furnishes a canopy, while

Arena

Vehicular Access

ELEVATION North ELEVATION South

Projection/Billboard Wall Active Fluorescent Light Wall

PLATFORM 23” Translucent PolycarbonateLight Steel StructureFluorescent light w/ Colour filters

Arena

Cemetery

CANOPYSteel Mesh10” Steel Columns

PLATFORM 1White smooth finish ConcreteGranite Pavers

STORAGE3” Translucent PolycarbonateProjection on North Facade

Highway Emergency Exit

Highway Emergency Exit

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC

PLAN Lower Level (+54.0) SECTION

Storage

Storage

Highway Emergency Exit

Highway Ventilation

Highway Emergency Exit

TWO BOXESTO POP

atmosphere through smell and light.The folly is composed of three components that constructed using three recyclable main materials: a shipping crate, translucent covered scaffolding and wooden boards.

A pop-up one room motel with a cafe to experience the day and night views of La Grande Arche and surrounding areas. The forms merge together and occupy the site by taking over the existing garden and enclosing on parts of it. It is to draw people from the jetty and nearby buildings with an inviting

ELEVATION South ELEVATION North

ONE ROOM MOTELShipping Container

MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM: CAFE, BAR, ETC.Generic Steel Scaffolding Wooden Boards

3” Translucent Polycarbonate Panels

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC

INTERIORPLAN Upper Level (+64.5)

One Room MotelMulti-Purpose

TWO STAIRWELLSTO PIANO

effect that Olafur Eliasson produced in his 2005 work Notion Motion. In Notion Motion a simple gesture of stepping on a lift off the floor would create ripples on the respective wall. And it is here in Two Stairwells to Piano that an interactive piece will use the energy created from the movement of the stairwell to illuminate the structure.

Growing out of the complex of two stairwells lies the opportu-nity to create intersections between individuals. The nightclub/lounge is not just a closed ended one-type of user structure but something that is playful for anyone that choos-ing to intersect with this building. The stairwells create a place of reverse voyeurism and as well, facilitates an interactive environment, much to the same

SECTION

Mechancial/Electrical

Storage

Dance

Lounge

Lounge

ELEVATION West

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC

3” Translucent Polycarbonate

Translucent PolycarbonateReactive Light Wall Strips

La Jetée

Jardin

Paris Métro

La Defense & Paris Métro

Welded Steel Frame

Concrete Plinth/Foundation

PLAN Upper Level (+64.5) PLAN Lower Level (+59.0)

Lounge

Lounge

Lounge

Lounge

Mechancial/Electrical

Bar

Bar

Dance

DanceStorage

Storage

Secondary Entrance/Exit

Main Entrance/Exit

La Jetée

La Defense & Paris Métro

Secondary Entrance/Exit

Paris Métro

Arena