narrative definitions

Sebastian Messer & Jennifer Jin

narrative in architectural design

‘trilectic’ diagram showing the relationship between people, space and time

exemplify expressive

literal representation = it looks like what it does metaphorical representation = it looks like something else

Hugo Haring (1923-6) Gut Gakau farm

narrative definitions

modes of narrative representation in art

1. monoscenic narrative : single scene depicts a crucial moment

Theodore Gericault (1818-9) The Raft of the Medusa see also: Victorian “problem pictures” and “anecdotic” paintings

2. continuous : multiple events depicted in a single frame (enframement)

Pieter Bruegal the Elder (1559) The fight between Carnival and Lent See also “panoptic” and “synoptic” pictures

Thomas Hillier, FleaFollyArchitects (2010) The Migration of Mel and Judith (link: http://www.bldgblog.com/tag/thomas-hillier/ )

an example of a continuous narrative in 3D

3. sequential : multiple frames read together develop temporal narratives

The axiomatic sequential narrative form is the comic strip Chris Ware (2013) Building Stories

Sohie Calle (1983) Suite Vénitienne

Calle follows ‘Henri B’ to Venice where she photographed and recorded his day-to-day actions secretly for two weeks. Calle follows him down side streets, letting him disappear so that she can seek him out again. She watches him linger on bridges, imitating his footsteps after he leaves and wonders what he could have been thinking. Calle concludes that she feels as if she were falling in love. Through the repeated images of Henri B.’s passing presence is to immortalise this moment; ‘to stake a claim on ephemeral things’. Venice’s hauntingly empty streets becoming ‘a repository of her desires’.

David Hockney (1961-3) The Rake’s Progress, New York (link: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hockney-1-the-arrival-p07029 ) inspired by William Hogarth (1732-4) The Rake’s Progress

sequential narrative (Hockney portrays himself as Hogarth’s ‘rake’)

narrative definitions

three levels of narrative architecture

Definitions in Nigel Coates (2012) Narrative Architecture

1. binary narrative : investing the building/ object with a parallel identity

SITE architects (1970 – 1984) BEST Products Stores other examples include the ‘duck building’ shown previously

2. sequential narrative : several events along a predetermined route

other examples include visitor attractions and airports Laurie Chetwood (2002) Butterfly House, Godalming, Surrey

3. Biotopic* narrative: independent ‘storylines’ or functions

* Could also be called a “cross-programme” brief Atelier Bow Wow (2001) Made in Tokyo (detail)

narrative definitions

narratives techniques in architectural production and representations

a ‘sketch’ = both processual, development drawings + final visualisations

definitions from Nelson Goodman (1969) The Languages of Art

a notation ‘system’ (music) or ‘scheme’ (script) = instructions

Mies Van Der Rohe (1924) Landhaus in brick

building/ object

movement

activity/ programme

Bernard Tschumi (1976-81) The Manhattan Transcripts (link: http://www.tschumi.com/projects/18/)

space and use | set and script | object and events movements of ‘protagonists’ in(to) the architectural ‘stage set’ “witness” or “direct” events

notation and narrative

Tschumi deeply inspired by staging of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass (1976) Einstein on the Beach (link: http://www.robertwilson.com/einstein-on-the-beach/ )

notation : activities make walls …

NATø (1985) Gamma City, London AIR gallery

sketch : continuous narrative (at multiple scales simultaneously)

An industrial ruinenlust: architecture is to the city as clothes are to the body

Nigel Coates (1986) Caffe Bongo, Tokyo (link: https://nigelcoates.com/projects/project/caffe_bongo )

‘Maximalism’ – the aesthetic, but not the socio-politics, of Gamma City…

Matthew Springett Associates (2002) St Luke’s Creative Agency (link: http://www.msalimited.com/ )

narrative used to develop a brief model shows activities not spaces…

The client’s concept was to create a “village” environment, so the conceptual activities (in white) do not represent literally what will take place in the spaces, but are metaphorical. For instance, the idea of “the chapel” embodies emotional and atmospheric qualities such as “quiet” or “calm” and may suggest physical attributes, like the quality of light or the materials used, in the way that the word “boardroom” does not!

The “narrative model” for St Luke’s Creative Agency in London was produced at the very start of the project to provoke a conversation with the client about what they required. • the existing buildings (in grey),

• the intervention (in yellow), and

• conceptual “narrative” activities (in white)

Niall McLaughlin Architects (2012) Bishop Edward King Chapel, Oxford (link: http://www.niallmclaughlin.com/projects/bishop-edward-king-chapel-oxford/ )

narrative used in design development

The architecture is formed between two ideas: A gentle hollow in the ground as a meeting place for the community – meeting in the stillness. A delicate, ship-like timber structure that rises into tree tops to gather the light from the tree – buoyancy, rising toward the light. The central space of a church is called a ‘nave’, which shares a latin etymological route with ‘navis’, a 17th Century ship, and can also mean the still centre of a turning wheel.

Paul Warrior (2011) SEA & IRON [mare et fero] INTERPRETATION CENTRE RIBA Pt. I Examination for Office Based Candidates

narrative informed programme + material language

the ‘gansie’ loom room : a look-out to sea for lost sailors the casting room : replacing sea-battered cladding sea water slowly corrodes the steel room

Sebastian Cunningham BA (hons) Architecture, Northumbria University (2010) The Alchemist’s Den

narrative informed programme + material language

Niall McLaughlin Architects (2010) Alzheimer’s Respite Centre, Dublin (link: http://www.niallmclaughlin.com/projects/alzheimers-respite-centre-dublin/ )

narrative used to present design development

Drawing of the wandering routes The Centre is a series of interconnected pavilions and protected spaces built within an existing walled garden of the adjacent convent. A number of the pathways naturally loop back on themselves, always returning a person home again.

Niall McLaughlin Architects (2016) Losing Myself, Venice Biennale Architettura (link: http://www.niallmclaughlin.com/projects/losing-myself/ )

narrative used in post-occupancy evaluation for research & development

A large time-based drawing which attempts to communicate and interpret some of the changes to spatial perception caused by dementia. The investigation of spatial cognition reveals an understanding of how minds interpret space, memory and situation.

narrative definitions

architectural representations of literary narratives

CJ Lim & Ed Liu (2011) “The Celestial River” Short Stories: London in Two-and-a-Half Dimensions (link: http://www.bldgblog.com/2011/04/fiction-and-the-city/ )

representations of “spatial stories” inspired by fairy tales

Studio Weave (2009) Freya and Robin (link: http://www.studioweave.com/projects/freya-and-robin/ )

representations of “spatial stories”

William Hogarth (1732-4) Bedlam, The Rake’s Progress Bartlett School of Architecture (2010) The Madhouse (1st yr project)

reinterpretation (from an image to an experience)

Sir John Soane (1807-1833) 12-14 Lincoln Inns Field Tom Emerson/ ETH Zurich (2012) The Monk’s Parlour (link: https://www.emerson.arch.ethz.ch/construction/monks-parlour )

abstraction and reinterpretation

Sir John Soane (1807-1833) The Picture Gallery (overlooking the Monk’s Parlour) Tom Emerson/ ETH Zurich (2012) The Monk’s Parlour (detail) (link: https://www.emerson.arch.ethz.ch/construction/monks-parlour )

abstraction and reinterpretation

Matthew Butcher (2012) Writtle Calling / 2EmmaToc (link: http://matthewbutcher.org/projects/writtle-calling-2emmatoc )

abstraction of found objects (memorialise first public radio broadcasts)

Stasus (2012) Pamphlet Architecture 32: Resilence

found objects represent/ re-present landscape proposals at multiple scales