sequencin in architecture

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UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Date:___________________

I, _________________________________________________________,

hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of:

in:

It is entitled:

August 17, 2006

Cynthia L. Bubb

Master of Architecture

School of Architecture and Interior Design of the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning

Sequence as Structure: Ordering the Body, Space and Architecture


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Sequence as Structure: Ordering the Body, Space & Architecture

A thesis submitted to the

Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the

University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Architecture

in the Department of Architecture and Interior Design

of the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning

2006

by

Cynthia L. Bubb

B.S., Miami University, 1998

Committee:

First Chair: Michael McInturf

Second Chair: Arati Kanekar


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Architectural sequences have often taken the form of linear spatial

progressions. In the twentieth century the naissance of cinema, wherein linear

progressions are interrupted and manipulated according to the elastic properties of

the medium, suggested new forms for architectural sequence. As a result Modern and

Postmodern architects appropriated cinematic concepts to architectural theory and

design. In particular, Le Corbusier and Bernard Tschumi explored the implications

of the frame, an intrinsic component of cinema, as a viewing device and structure

to order architectural sequences. The methodology adopted for the design of a

ferry terminal in Boston, Massachusetts reflects the influence of Bernard Tschumis

theoretical exercise, The Manhattan Transcripts, particularly MT 4: The Block.

Represented in diagram, the interaction of space, movement, event and an additional

factor, time, conveys the concurrent development and influence of four spatial

sequences on the design of the terminal.

ABSTRACT


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my family and friends, in particular Mom, Dad, Julie, Terry and Jileen, for

their love and support this year and the past five years.

Thanks also to Aarati Kanekar, Michael McInturf and Gordon Simmons for their advice and

patience throughout the thesis process.


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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Illustration Credits

Introduction

Chapter 1: Structural Analysis of Sequence

narrative sequence

the manhattan transcripts

maninpulation of the frame in slow house

Chapter 2: Linear Progressions to Montage Collisions

linear progressions

cinematic sequence: the changing point of view of the spectator

from cinema to architecture

architect as director: villa savoye

Chapter 3: Sequence and Uncertainty

the situationist international

constants new babylon

yokohama port terminal

Chapter 4: Conclusion and Design Methodology

Chapter 5: Design

Site

Program

Appendix

CONTENTS

| i


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Introduction

Figure 0.1

Photograph of Barcelona Pavilion

Figure 0.2

Photograph of Barcelona Pavilion

Chapter 1: Structural Analysis of Sequence

Figure 1.1 [Notes by Cynthia Bubb]

Second Floor Plan of Slow House

Figure 1.2

Model of Slow House

Figure 1.3 [Notes by Cynthia Bubb]Slow House Plan and Section Drawing

Figure 1.4

Slow House Section Model

Chapter 2: Linear Progressions to Montage Collisions

Figure 2.1

Poster for Berlin, the Symphony of a Great

Figure 2.2

The Carceri: An Immense Interior with Numerous Wooden Galleries and a Drawbridge in the Center

by Giovanni PiranesiFigure 2.3

The Acropolis, First Sight of the Platformby Auguste Choisy

Figure 2.4

Diagrams of the Acropolis by Sergei Eisenstein


Ground Floor Plan of Villa Savoye


| ii


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First Floor Plan of Villa Savoye


Second Floor Plan of Villa SavoyeFigure 2.8 [Notes by Cynthia Bubb]

Section of Villa SavoyeFigure 2.9 [Notes by Cynthia Bubb]Photograph of Villa Savoye

Figure 2.10

Photograph of Villa Savoye

Figure 2.11

Photograph of Villa SavoyeFigure 2.12


Figure 2.13


Figure 2.14

Photograph of Villa SavoyeFigure 2.15 [Notes by Cynthia Bubb]Photograph of Villa Savoye

Figure 2.16 [Notes by Cynthia Bubb]Photograph of Villa Savoye

Chapter 3: Sequence and Uncertainty

Figure 3.1

The Naked Cityby Guy Debord

Figure 3.2

Memoiresby Asger Jorn and Guy DebordFigure 3.3

Psychogeographic Map of Venice by Ralph Rumney

Figure 3.4

Photograph of Yokohama Port Terminal

List of Illustrations | iii


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Figure 3.5


Figure 3.6

Photograph of Yokohama Port TerminalFigure 3.7Photograph of Yokohama Port Terminal

Figure 3.8


Conclusion

Design Project

Figure 5.1 [Diagram by Cynthia Bubb]

Program, Sequence & TimeFigure 5.2 [Diagram by Cynthia Bubb]Commuter Boat Routes

Figure 5.3 [Diagram by Cynthia Bubb]Proposed Inner Harbor and Commuter Routes from Fan Pier

Figure 5.4 [Diagram by Cynthia Bubb]Fan Pier

List of Illustrations | iv


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ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

Betsky, Aaron. Scanning the Aberrant Architecture of Diller + Scofidio. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2003.

Curtis, William J.R.Modern Architectur e Since 1900. New York: Phaidon Press Inc., 2003.

Ferre, Albert and others, eds. The Yokohama Project: Foreign Office Architects. Barcelona: Actar, 2002.

Ford, Simon. The Situationist International: A Users Guide. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2005.

Futagawa, Yukio, ed.Mies van der Rohe: German Pavilion & Tugendhat House.Tokyo: A.D.A. Edita, 1995.

Katz, Lois and Jessica Berman, eds. Piranesi: Drawings and Etchings at the Avery Architectural Library. New York:Meriden Gravure Company, 1975.

Penz, Francois and Maureen Thomas, eds. Cinema & Architecture: Mlis, Mallet-Stevens, Multimedia. London: BritishFilm Institute, 1997.

Sbriglio, Jacques. Le Corbusier: La Villa Savoye. Basel: Birkhuser Publishers, 1999.

Tschumi, Bernard. The Manhattan Transcripts. 2nd edition. London: Academy Editions, 1994.

| v


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Introduction

Sequence, as defined by literary critic Roland Barthes, is a logical succession of nuclei bound together by a

relation of solidarity: the sequence opens when one of the terms has no solidary antecedent and closes when anotherof its terms has no consequence.1 Developed in response to narrative sequences, the definition translates equally

to architecture and film. The thesis investigates the impact of cinematic approaches to sequence on architecture and

proposes a methodology derived from theoretical and built precedents. Specifically, the methodology adopted for

the design of a ferry terminal in Boston, Massachusetts reflects the influence of Bernard Tschumis The Manhattan

Transcripts.

The development of sequence through history provides a basis for understanding manifestations of

sequence in modern times. Often architectural sequences took the form of linear progressions.2 However, a radical

shift in the conception of space at the turn of the twentieth century, heralded by art and architecture critic Anthony

Vidler as an explosion of space,3 conveyed the potential of nonlinear progressions. Russian film director Sergei

Eisenstein compared cinematic and architectural space in his analysis of architect Auguste Choisys description of

the Acropolis at Athens. In doing so, Eisenstein paralleled the experience of walking through the Acropolis to the

peripatetic vision of the camera. The concept of peripatetic vision, along with the spatially complex renderings

of Piranesi, directly influenced Modern architects conception of space. In Mies van der Rohes iconic Barcelona

Pavilion, there is one sequence of direct vision and one for the experience of the body.4 The idea of conflict or

disconnect between body and vision also influenced the work of Le Corbusier. His development of the ramp as

architectonic promenade, particularly at the Villa Savoye, embodies this concept.

In the late 1950s through the early 1970s, the Situationist International explored concepts of space and

sequence as part of a political agenda. In turn the Situationist concepts of drive, urban wandering, and dtournement,

montage, manifest in their writings and social experiments influenced a generation of young architects. The concept

of drive, in which the Situationists aimlessly wandered the streets of Paris open to any event that might interrupt

| 1

Figure 0.1Mies van der Rohe, German Pavilion,International Exposition, Barcelona,Spain, 1928-29 (reconstructed 1986)


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their journey, influenced architect Bernard Tschumis interest in event architecture and the relationship of events to

sequence and space.The first chapter of the thesis, Structural Analysis of Sequence defines sequence from a structural point

of view and serves as reference point for later chapters. The chapter begins with a comparison of architect Bernard

Tschumis essay Sequences and Roland Barthes essay Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives

and establishes a link between Barthes four functional narrative units and Tschumis internal and external relations.

In Tschumis essay Sequences, he identifies three relations within the architectural sequence: an internal relation

that deals with the method of work, such as transformation, and two external relations, spatial and programmatic.

The second part of the chapter analyzes Tschumis theoretical project, The Manhattan Transcripts, according to the

logic of Sequences. The chapter concludes with the application of sequence and the frame to Slow House, an

unbuilt vacation home by architects Diller + Scofidio. Slow House embodies a calculated and controlled approach

to architectural sequence that contrasts with less defined, open-ended approaches to sequence identified later in the

thesis.

The second chapter of the thesis, Linear Progressions to Montage Collisions, recounts the development

of sequence in architecture up to the Modern era. The chapter concludes with Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye in

which the ramp as architectonic promenade represents an innovation in the approach to sequence. On the ramp,

the spectator experiences a vertical and horizontal relation to architectural space. Likewise switchbacks enable the

spectator to simultaneously reflect upon the route taken and anticipate the final destination. The view destination at

Villa Savoye anticipates the relationship of view to Slow House and the use of the frame as a structural element in

Tschumis The Manhattan Transcripts.

The final chapter of the thesis, Sequence and Uncertainty, explores the liberating potential of sequence.

In contrast to the prescribed routes dictated by the architects and architecture of Slow House and Villa Savoye, the

Situationist International exploits the potential of open-ended, loosely defined sequences. Rather than a view or

other destination, ambulation is the object of the open sequence. In particular, the architecture of Yokohama PortIntroduction | 2

Figure 0.2Mies van der Rohe, German Pavilion,International Exposition, Barcelona,Spain, 1928-29 (reconstructed 1986)


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Introduction | 3

Terminal by Foreign Office Architects invites drive, or urban wandering, advocated by the Situationists.

The thesis analyzes precedents according to internal and external relations in order to clarify the roleof sequence in each project. As a result, it is possible to divide the precedents according to two extremes. At one

extreme, the architect manipulates sequence for control over the position of the body, viewing angle and other

variables within the scope of sequence. This extreme is exemplified by the ramp sequence at Villa Savoye. In contrast,

the opposite extreme facilitates freedom of movement, of view and interaction through options and freedom of

choice. As such, it is exemplified in Tschumis event spaces and Constants New Babylon.

The relation of sequence to movement represents a compelling opportunity for architects. The thesis

includes drawings of three dimensional sequences, but the progressive, constructed nature of sequence translates

especially well to model form. Notably, Diller + Scofidios model of Slow House communicates the consistently

changing relationship between body and architecture achieved through the curve and slope of walls. The

representation of sequence presents a particular challenge to the methodology and design of the thesis building

project.

Endnotes

1 Roland Barthes. Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives, in Image, Music, Text, translated by Stephen Heath, (NewYork: Hill and Wang, 1977), 101.

2 Bernard Tschumi, Sequences, inArchitecture and Disjunction, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996).

3 Anthony Vidler, The Explosion of Space: Architecture and the Filmic Imaginary, in Film Architecture, ed. Dietrich Neumann(Munich, Germany: Prestel-Verlag, 1996), 22.

4 Bernard Tschumi, Sequences, inArchitecture and Disjunction, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), 199.


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Chapter 1Structural Analysis of Sequence

| 4


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Structural Analysis of Sequence

Structural Analysis of Sequence | 5

In the essay Sequences, written between 1981 and 1983, architect and theorist Bernard Tschumi

defines sequence as a formal structure that supports the interplay of space, event and movement in architectural

compositions. The subject and tone of Tschumis essay owes much to French literary critic Roland Barthes essay,

Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives, first published in 1966, in which Barthes systematically

dissects the narrative into composite literary units and sequences. Comparison of Tschumis Sequences and

Barthes Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives, reveals the origins of Tschumis interest in sequence

and the difficulties inherent in translating narrative techniques to architecture.

In Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives, Barthes compares narrative analysis to linguistics.

In linguistics, there is nothing that is not to be found in the sentence.1 Though narratives exhibit characteristics

of sentences, they are composed of narrative units that may be higher than sentences, such as groups of sentences,

or lower than sentences, such as individual words and even elements within words. Though a hierarchy exists among

units, Barthes contends the removal of a single unit, no matter how insignificant, alters the narrative.

In the process of his analysis, Barthes identifies four functional narrative units. The first function, the

cardinal function, constitutes a hinge point in the narrative. According to Barthes, the cardinal function must open,

continue, or close an alternative that is of direct consequence for the subsequent development of the narrative.2

An example of a cardinal function is: a phone rings and someone answers it. The action is cardinal because, in this

instance, not answering the phone would significantly alter the course of the narrative. Catalyzers make up the second

functional unit and fill in the narrative space that separates cardinal functions. In the example, the process of walking

across the room to answer the phone and lifting the receiver are catalyzers. The third class of functional unit, the

integrational unit, comprises diffuse concepts such as mood and metaphor necessary to story development. The last

unit, the informant, situates the narrative in a particular time and space.

Barthes functional units combine and overlap to create nar rative sequences. In a definition quoted by

Tschumi in his essay Sequences, Barthes refers to sequence as a logical succession of nuclei bound together by a


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relation of solidarity: the sequence opens when one of i ts terms has no solitary antecedent and closes when another

of its terms has no consequences.3 A narrative sequence is always nameable, such as Having a drink.4 Structurally,

sequences may overlap and in doing so create distortions and expansions in the narrative. Alternately, units in

particular sequence may be separated from one another by the insertion of units from other sequences. For example,

a simple process such as sitting on a chair or reaching for a glass may be initiated in one part of the narrative,

interrupted by monologue, flashback or other narrative device, and completed in another. While Barthes narrative

units correspond logically to similar concerns in architecture, identified by Bernard Tschumi as program, space and

movement, the space-time constraints of the three dimensional environment inhibit direct translation of narrative

sequences to architecture.

The expansion and interruption of sequences are two conditions, among many, considered by Tschumi

in Sequences. Tschumis essay reads as an extended definition of architectural sequence. According to Tschumi,

architectural sequences include or imply at least three relations, one internal and two external. The internal

relation deals with the method of work.5 It is described as a device or a procedure, such as transformation. A

transformational sequence usually relies upon rules dictated by the architect such as: compression, rotation, insertion,

and transference. Additionally, transformational sequences can display sets of variations, multiplications, fusions,

repetitions, inversions, substitutions, metamorphoses, anamorphoses and dissolutions. Potentially, the sequential

transformation becomes its own theoretical object.

The two external relations are spatial and programmatic. The spatial sequence is the most accessible

and recognizable of the three relations. Whereas transformational sequences may or may not translate to actual

experience, spatial organization is readily accessible to the individual in space. All spatial sequences emphasize



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a planned path with fixed halting points, a family of spatial points linked by continuous movement.6 Examples

of linear spatial sequences include Renaissance churches and transportation terminals. Like the transformational

sequence, Tschumi identifies the spatial sequence as mostly within the control of the architect, especially in the case

of linear sequences.

The second external relation, the programmatic sequence, is characterized by symbolic and social

connotations. Tschumi organizes programmatic sequences into three categories: programs indifferent to spatial

sequence, programs that have a reciprocal relationship to sequence and thus reinforce sequence and programs that

conflict with spatial sequence. Throughout the essay, Tschumi extends the traditional notion of architectural program

to include events, scripted and unscripted, that occur within architectural space. In doing so, the programmatic

sequence extends beyond the control of the architect and allows for events and sequential interactions that are

unplanned. Thus, unlike Barthes rigid narrative sequences dictated by the author, the architectural sequence must

account for the unanticipated actions of individuals.

The implication of the individual in architectural space is uncertainty. Tschumis note that in architecture

meaning is derived from the order of experience rather than the order of composition identifies a significant

difference between narrative and architectural sequences. Even in ritualistic spaces that dictate a controlled

experience, absolute control is impossible. As a partial solution to the problem of control, Tschumi proposes the

frame. Within Sequences, the frame is ambiguously defined as the moments of the sequence.7 The frame is

both the framing device, conforming, regular, solid, and the framed material questioning, distorting, displacing.8

The implications of the frame in architecture, and Tschumis work in particular, are evident in Tschumis theoretical

project, The Manhattan Transcripts.



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Endnotes

1 Roland Barthes, Structural Analysis of Narratives in Image, Music, Text, translated by Stephen Heath, (New York: Hill andWang, 1977), 82.

2 Ibid, 94.

3 Ibid., 101.

4 Ibid.

5 Bernard Tschumi, Sequences, in Architecture and Disjunction, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), 153.

6 Ibid.,155.

7 Ibid., 166.

8 Ibid.



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The Manhattan Transcripts

Bernard Tschumis The Manhattan Transcriptscomprises four theoretical exercises. Intended for display, the

Transcriptswere shown in the Artists Space in New York in 1978. According to Tschumi, the organization of the

Transcriptsrelies upon sequence. Tschumi defines sequence as a composite succession of frames that confronts

spaces, movements, and events, each with its own combinative structure and inherent set of rules.1 The frame

includes theframing device conform, regular, solid and theframed material, which constantly questions, distorts and

displaces.2 Occasionally the framing device is also distorted, as evident in an analysis ofMT 4: The Block. Analysis of

the first Transcript,MT 1: The Park, and the last,MT 4: The Block, reveals the development of sequence from the linear

relationships inMT 1 to the complex, fragmented relations inMT 4.

Tschumis three relations manifest in the tripartite division of the Transcriptsinto movements, spaces, and

events. The first relation is internal and refers to a device or procedure. There are two external relations: spatial and

programmatic. Procedures associated with the first relation in the Transcriptsinclude: transformation, indifference,

reciprocity, disjunction and conflict. Transformation permits the extreme formal manipulation of the sequence,

for the content of congenial frames can be mixed, superposed, faded in or cut up, giving endless possibilities to the

narrative sequence.3 Indifference dictates spaces and events function independently of one another. And reciprocity

is defined as not a question of which knowing which comes first, movement or space.4

MT 1, The Park, represents a linear sequence of spaces, movements and events dictated by the short

narrative/event at the beginning of the Transcript.The most accessible of the three Transcripts, The Park is a

recognizable place, Central Park in New York City, and setting for a program of murder, manhunt and capture. The

theme of murder throughout the Transcriptsunderscores Tschumis interest in unprogrammed events and movements

that occur in architectural spaces. The organization of each of the The Parkseight pages is consistent: three groups

of three frames, equally spaced on a page. The organization suggests a vertical as well as horizontal relation of

space, movement and event. The smallest sequential unit is made up of three frames, each dedicated to either

program, space or movement. Program is represented through photographs and, read vertically, resembles a filmstrip.



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Movement, when it occurs, is drawn in plan. Architectural space, in this case at the scale of the city, is represented as

plan and also, near the end of the Transcript, extruded as an axonometric. InMT 1, architectural space is acted upon

and the resultant space embodies qualities of both program and movement.

In contrast to the temporal, linear development ofMT 1, the spatial development ofMT 4, The Block, relies

upon devices initiated by, but separate from, program and movement. The descriptive paragraph that precedesMT

4 emphasizes the setting and characters over the narrative tone assumed in other Transcripts. InMT 4 the program,

represented in photographs, refers to an activity associated with a member of the cast. Initially, as inMT 1, there

is a close association between program and movement. However, as the Transcriptprogresses the relations within

sequences becomes increasingly complex. The dissolution of the frame by the final page of the Transcriptyields the

most fragmented manifestation of all the Transcripts.

Endnotes

1 Bernard Tschumi, Illustrated Index: Themes from The Manhattan Transcripts, in The Manhattan Transcripts, (London, England:Academy Editions, 1994), XXIV.

2Ibid.

3 Ibid., XXV.

4 Ibid.



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Slowhouse


In Slow House, pictured on the cover of Progressive Architecturein 1991, architects Elizabeth Diller

and Ricardo Scofidio investigate the nature of a vacation home. The architects describe the motivation

of slow house as a door that leads to a window; physical entry to optical departure.1 As evident

through the abundance of drawings and models dedicated to the project in addition to the architects own

descriptions, the design of Slow House translates an ordinary sequence of events, the journey from the

city to the vacation home, into a relatively complex architectural idea.

Conceptually, Slow House begins the moment the vacationer departs the city and ends when

she arrives at the ocean view, visible through the picture window that dominates one end of the house.2

In the words of the architects, Slow House represents a passage from artifice (the city-culture operating

at its most apparent) to nature (the view-culture operating at its most subtle)3

Fittingly, the sequence

of journey from city to nature is filtered through a series of lenses: the car windshield, a picture window

and a television screen. The car enters the two acre site and stops when the road terminates by deflecting

upward to support the roof plane.4 To ease the transition from car to foot, the front of house consists

solely of a garage door that measures four feet wide by eighteen feet high. The presence of the garage

door facilitates the smooth exchange of one viewing lens, the car windshield, for another, the yet unseen

picture window. In this way the architects reinforce the theme of artifice that pervades the house; an

intermediary, the viewing mechanism, always exists between the individual and the nature. Past the entry

a vertical edge/wall divides the receding passage; one half curves to the right and leads up to the social

spaces, the kitchen, dining and living rooms, while the left path remains level and leads to the bedrooms

and baths. Maintaining the theme of journey to view, either choice of path ends at the picture window

with a view to the shoreline.

Besides the functional separation of private and public areas, the left and right paths reinforce

the sense of anticipation that began when the automobile first pulled away from the city. According to

counterweighted stair

deck

fireplaceskylight over bed

picture window

video camera

monitor/tv

living area

skylight over bath

fast stair

80-foot countertop

void to below

mobile dining table

dining deck

skylight over bed

w.c.

skylight over bed

kitchen

skylight over sink

80-foot countertop

dining for two

void to below

slow stair

pivoting entry door

Figure 1.1Slow House, second floor plan withnotations.


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the architects the split passage deforms the model of classical perspective,5 an ideal reinforced by

the decelerating curve6 of the north wall.. Starting plumb at the entry point of the house, the wall

leans a quarter inch for every foot of its length until it reaches a maximum twelve degree incline at

the picture window. The curving wall literally extends the sequence in the same way that a film extends

a dramatic scene, in order to build anticipation in the viewer. As the wall section changes, beds, baths

and fixtures poke through7 visually supporting the incline. An eighty foot long counter protrudes

from the south wall and supports a range of programs along the wall, including mechanical and

electrical requirements of the kitchen. Collectively, these spatial transformations reinforce the sense

of expectation identified by the architects as inherent to the idea of vacation home.

Appropriately, a feeling of placelessness pervades the written descriptions, models anddrawings of Slow House. Context, mentioned generically as a two acre site with an ocean view in the

Hamptons, matters less than the cultural, iconic relationship of the individual to a vacation home.

Materiality, whether subdued in order to reinforce the importance of the aforementioned windshield,

picture window and television or simply because it is unimportant to the final effect of the building,

is mostly absent from drawings and models and described only briefly by the architects. In one model

the garage door/front of the house is painted red possibly to signify its importance as a transition in

the overall sequence. The planned construction of the house resembles that of a boat a stressed-

skin structure made up of twenty-seven vertical bents8. In turn the bents are clad horizontally with

2x4 lumber finished on the interior with two layers of plywood and on the exterior with one layer of

horizontal planking over plywood. A series of windows puncture the plumb south wall of the house,

but the only real view out of the house occurs at the end of the one hundred foot wall, through the

picture window, toward the horizon.

Figure 1.2Slow House, model.


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In Slow House, the architects realize their vision of the body and space as interdependent

constructs, inseparable from the cultural forces which have shaped them.9 Effectively, both body and

architecture are altered in anticipation of the final view. Parallax, induced by the curving north wall and

protruding objects, induces awareness of the body as the final view destination comes into sight. The value

of this rethinking of traditional elements is eloquently described by a juror who reviewed the project for

Progressive Architecture:

Many architects have a weakness of having an incredibly obvious relationship with a view, and

what I like here is that the house is a kind of mise en scene. It manipulates the view; the house

both blocks and finally exposes the view, and I think thats probably itself an experience, and

probably a way of avoiding boredom and monotony.10


monitor

car windshield

Figure 1.3Slow House, plan and section drawings withnotation.

Figure 1.4Slow House, model with section cuts.


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In conclusion Slow House collectively exploits the potential of the internal and external relations of sequence.

The programmatic sequence resembles that of a traditional vacation home but with modifications that reinforce the

theoretical ideas of the architects. In turn, the spatial sequence dominates the house from the moment of departure from

the city to the moment of arrival at the picture window. As such, a series of compressed spaces, beginning with the tight

quarters of the cab and maintained through the split curves of the plan, heighten the experience of release at the picture

window. Likewise, the architects allow the incline of the south wall to penetrate and inform the programmatic space of

the house. Thus Slow House employs the transformative potential of sequence to reinforce its theoretical and experiential

objectives.

Endnotes

1 Elizabeth Diller & Ricardo Scofidio, Flesh: Architectural Probes, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, Inc., 1994), 225.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid, 248.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid, 39.

10 Ibid., 240.Structural Analysis of Sequence | 14


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The use of sequence as an ordering device is constant throughout the history of architecture. Spatial

sequences have often followed the logic of linear progression wherein no movement contradicted the logic of the

progression. In the twentieth century, the linear sequence was visually transformed through the elastic proper ties

of cinema. In turn, the sympathetic relationship between architecture and cinema urged architects to consider new

forms for the architectural sequence. No longer limited to linear progressions, architects applied contradictions,

interruptions, compressions and other transformative operations to reflect the bodys new complex relationship

to space.

Linear Progressions

Notable examples of linear progressions include the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome and two villas by Andrea

Palladio. St. Peters sequence, recognizable in plan, encompasses the access doors, movement into the atrium,

passage through the basilica doors, movement through the nave and finally, arrival at the space of central system.1

Effectively, the visitor experiences pressure at the access doors, limited liberation in the atrium, a sense of restriction

or opposition from the atrium walls, short pressure at the basilica doors, liberation in movement through the nave,

and, finally, contemplation in the final space.2 In contrast to St. Peters, the sequential manipulation at Palladios

Villa Rotunda exhibits complexity of space that requires a sectional as well as two-dimensional understanding.

Luigi Moretti writes that in the density of light, the volumes go from portico to hall in the order of maximum to

minimumin dimensions, the order is medium, least, greatest.3 Thus, Villa Rotunda demonstrates the potential to

manipulate the sequence of volumes in opposition to the plan sequence. The final example, Morettis discussion of

Palladios Villa Thiene, exhibits a systemic logic. Alone, Morettis written description is barely adequate as a means to

describe the complexity of the space:

In their pure dimensions, the sequences can be equated graphically as circles whose radii are proportional to

Linear progressions to Montage Collisions

Linear Progressions to Montage Collisions | 16


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the sphere corresponding in volume to each surrounding and whose center coincides with

the center of gravity of the volume itself and is marked at the distance which in proportion

this center has from the base plane of the spaces, that is from the level of the plinth.4

Historically the linear spatial sequence, without the modern influence of vectors, overlays and

transformations, nonetheless facilitated complex and intricate renderings of space.

Cinematic Sequence: Peripatetic Viewpoint of the Spectator

In Montage and Architecture Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein asserts a

correspondence between architecture and cinema in Auguste Choisys Histoire de larchitectureand toa lesser extent, the enigmatic perspectives of Giovanni Piranesi. In Histoire de larchitecture, published

in 1889, Choisy interprets the Acropolis at Athens as an early manifestation of the picturesque in

architecture and planning. In so doing, Choisy is the first architect in modern times to suggest that

the buildings at the Acropolis, represented through his own plans and perspectives, owe their design

and placement to the first impression or picture they present to the moving spectator.5 As illustrated

by Choisy, the Acropolis depicts a sophisticated symmetry related to balance rather than mirror image

reflection. Choisys radical assessment of the Acropolis inspired Eisenstein to contrast the two paths

of the spatial eye: the cinematic, in which an immobile spectator follows an imaginary line among a

series of objects using sight and mind and the architectural, in which the spectator ambulates through

a series of phenomena visually observed in order.6 Reflecting on Choisy, Eisenstein suggests that the

walk through the Acropolis at Athens exposes the innate correspondence between architecture and

cinema. Furthermore, he proclaims that Choisy provides a magnificent picture of the construction

and computation ofa montage from the point of view of a moving spectator.7 Eisensteins


Figure 2.1Graphic montage to promote the filmBerlin, the Symphony of a Great City.

Figure 2.2Giovanni Piranesi, The Carceri: AnImmense Interior with Numerous Wooden

Galleries and a Drawbridge in the Center.,Etching.


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cinematic reading of Choisys work at the Acropolis effectively inscribed the bodily movement of the

spectator into architecture in the twentieth century.

In addition to Choisy, Eisensteins was familiar with the drawings of Giovanni Piranesi.

Piranesis dark, labyrinthine perspectives suggest the disorienting effects of parallax, the apparent

change in position of a body due to a change in position of the observer. In his introduction to

Montage and Architecture, Yve-Alain Bois writes:

Through elaborate disjunction of plan and elevation, which leads to a vertiginous

fragmentation of architectural space, Piranesi deprives the spectator of any center of

reference, of any definitive climax, and initiates the rupture of the modern movement in

architecture.8

In addition to projecting a new image of space, the cinematic sequence implied a greater degree of

control for the architect over the spectator, similar to that a director over a film and audience.

Cinema Architecture: Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier was also influenced by Choisys account of the Acropolis, but in contrast to

Eisenstein focused his critique on Choisys second perspective image rather than the entire sequence.

The second perspective places the spectator in front of the statue of Athene Promakhos with

the Erechtheion and the Parthenon in the background. For Le Corbusier, this view demonstrates

the flexibility of Greek axial planning9 in which the asymmetrical plan composition exhibits

equilibrium when viewed in perspective. Furthermore the dialogue between plan and perspective

at the Acropolis permitted a return to the original bodily and sensational sources of the plan.10

The implication of bodily movement in architectural design, exemplified in Choisys drawings of the

Acropolis, directly influenced the development of Le Corbuiserspromenade architecturale.11


Figure 2.3Auguste Choisy, The Acropolis, First Sightof the Platform.

Figure 2.4Sergei Eisenstein, diagrams of the successivepositions of the Acropolis as described inperspective by Auguste Choisy.


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In The Ramp as Architectonic Promenade in Corbusiers Work, Jrgen Joedicke asserts

three metaphors for the ramp as architectonic promenade. In its most basic incarnation, the ramp is path.

At the Villa Savoye, much as in Choisys narrative of movement through the Acropolis, Joedicke

provides a first-person account of movement up the path. The essential transition points in the

ascent to the roof garden, including the entry to the Villa, the beginning of the upward path, and

the final vista that is pictorially framed on the roof garden, are vertically aligned. In contrast to the

symmetrical position of the ramp in the interior of the building, the second vertical link, a curved

staircase, is shifted asymmetrically. As at the Acropolis, the perspective view of ramp and stair from

the main entrance communicates a more balanced symmetry. Near the apex of the ramp at the Villa

one looks back through the glazing into the interior of the house, onto the ramp which one hasascended early.12 At this point, the ramp is montage; it implicates memory as well as movement.

Equally, the window frame that marks the end of the ramps ascent serves as a montage element by

communicating different views based on the position of the observer. The ramp at the Carthusian

monastery of Ema, visited by Le Corbusier in 1907 and a source of possible inspiration for the ramp

in his own work, functions similarly. Moving upward on the ramp, one is able to look out through

large apertures enclosed with semicircular arches on the path one has come.13 The ability to look

back is an essential attribute of the ramp as architectonic promenade. The third metaphor for the ramp

is a manifestation of three-dimensional Corbusian space. According to Joedicke, Corbusiers work is

limited to three fundamental dimensions of human perception and human experience: length, width

and height.14 Time is not included because it is not a quality of space; it is a characteristic aspect

of the successive perceptions of man passing through one space after another.15 Beginning with Le

Corbusier, mans movement through space becomes a guiding principle for architecture, particularly

modernism, not just in movement in and through space but also in the alternation between

movement and being stationary.16Linear Progressions to Montage Collisions | 19

1

2

3

4

5

foyer entrance from garage

6

Figure 2.5

Le Corbusier, Ground Floor, Villa Savoye.

Diagrams correspond to images on p. 11.

Figure 2.6

Le Corbusier, First Floor, Villa Savoye


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Contents | 21

In the Modern era, architects interest in sequence owes much to changes in the perception

of space initiated at the turn of the twentieth century. Auguste Choisy rediscovered Greek

asymmetrical balance in his narrative of the Acropolis at Athens. In turn, Russian film director

Sergei Eisenstein, who was also a friend of Le Corbusier, described in Choisys narrative as the first

cinematic sequence. The comparison of architectural sequence to cinematic sequence initiated a trend

through Modern and later Postmodern architecture in which architects exploited the potential of the

peripatetic viewpoint of the mobile spectator instead of a single, fixed point of reference.

Endnotes

1 Luigi Morreti, Structures and Sequences of Space. in Oppositions 4. (New York: Wittenborn Art Books, 1974).

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Anthony Vidler, The Explosion of Space: Architecture and the Filmic Imaginary, in Film Architecture, ed.Dietrich Neumann (Munich, Germany: Prestel-Verlag, 1996), 22.

7 Sergie M. Eisenstein, Montage and Architecture, introduction by Yve-Alian Bois,Assemblage 10.

8 Bois.

9 Anthony Vidler, The Explosion of Space: Architecture and the Filmic Imaginary, in Film Architecture, ed.Dietrich Neumann (Munich, Germany: Prestel-Verlag, 1996), 23.

10 Ibid. Linear Progressions to Montage Collisions | 21


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Contents | 22

11 Sergie M. Eisenstein, Montage and Architecture, introduction by Yve-Alian Bois,Assemblage 10: 113.

12

Ibid., 106.

13 Jrgen Joedicke, The Ramp as Architectonic Promenade in Le Corbusiers Work, Daidalos 12, (June 1984):105.

14 Ibid., 108.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.



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Chapter 3Sequence and Uncertainty

Contents | 23| 23


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The Situationist International

The Situationist Internationale (SI), founded in 1957 by French philosopher, filmmaker

and activist Guy Debord, interpreted the work of Le Corbusier and the Modernists according to a

post-war avant-garde political agenda. Like Corbusier, the Situationists were captivated by cinematic

techniques, especially montage. However, direct transference of cinematic concepts to three-

dimensional space, as cautioned by Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, proved prohibitive and so the

Situationists attempts at architectural montage (dtournement)never developed much beyond theory.1

Instead, the Situationists contribution to sequence primarily derives from their nonlinear experiments

and their obsession with the present. In Theses on Cultural Revolution Guy Debord, The

Situationist goal is immediate participation in the abundance of life, through the variation of fleeting

moments resolutely arranged. The success of these moments can only be their passing effect.2

Concern for the provisional and present directed the Situationist practices of urban

wandering (drive), montage aesthetics (dtournement), and construction of situations. Drive, French

meaning drift,describes the act of navigating the city and unforeseeable accidents of its surface.3

Like the sea, the city contains constant currents, fixed points, and eddies which together render

approach and exit of certain zones very difficult.4 Combined with drive, these features represent

the Situationist concept of psychogeography: the study of the specific effects of the geographic

environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.5 Guy

Debord represented the psychogeographical city in The Naked City, a map of Paris created in 1957

that illustrates the push and pull of various neighborhoods on the urban explorer. In contrast to the

veritable success ofdrivein the built environment, the SIs translation of dtournementwas limited to

graphic representation.

Sequence and Uncertainty | 24

Figure 3.1Guy Debord, The Naked City, 1958.Psychogeographical map of the Paris.

Figure 3.2Asger Jorn and Guy Debord,Memoires, 1957.Montage/collage of paint, text and image.


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In addition to graphic design and the construction of Situations, the architect Constant envisioned

a futuristic city shaped by the Situationist critique. Constant based the design his utopian city, New Babylon,

represented in drawings and physical models, on the political and social messages conveyed in Guy Debords film

Society of the Spectacle. In Society of the Spectacle, Debord characterizes existing architecture as a confining force and

complement of the bourgeois world that holds one in place.6 In contrast to existing architecture, Constants New

Babylon resists stasis by promoting leisure and walking as the main activities of the city.

Constant envisioned a future society characterized by leisure and freedom of movement based on his belief

that automation would eventually free people from work. Likewise, New Babylon represents a reaction against the ville

verteor green city of the 1920s and 1930s with its isolated high rises that thwart direct contact and shared activities

among people.7

In contrast to the green city, New Babylon creates social spaces where the inhabitants of the citymingle and interact. Suspended high above the earths surface, the New Babylon accommodates humanitys nomadic

wanderers8

In New Babylon, Constant translates the Situationist concept of driveinto architecture. Specifically,

he resists the fixed nature of architecture in order to realize a structure characterized by change and the result is

a playful megastructuralism.9 Despite its large scale, Constants renderings communicate labyrinthine spaces

that recall the drawings of the nineteenth century architect Giovanni Piranesi. Like Piranesi, in place of optimal

orientation preference is given to a loss of orientation conducive to adventure, play and creativity.10 Symbolically,

the labyrinth does not represent a path toward a single goal, but rather a web of many unknowns and variables.11

Though architects, such as Le Corbusier, possessed similar interest in montage and movement, Corbusiers controlled

path and point of view, as demonstrated in the sequence at bourgeois Villa Savoye, contrast sharply with the

Situationists free wanderings and anti-bourgeois sentiment.



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Endnotes

1 Thomas McDonough, Fluid Spaces: Constant and the Situationist Critique of Architecture, in The Activist Drawing: Retracing Situationist Architecture fromConstants New Babylon to Beyond, ed. Catherine de Zegher and Mark Wigley (New York: The Drawing Center, 2001), 101.

2 Guy Debord, Theses on Cultural Revolution, in The Activist Drawing: Retracing Situationist Architecture from Constants New Babylon to Beyond, ed. Catherine deZegher and Mark Wigley (New York: The Drawing Center, 2001), 93.

3 Ibid., 95.


Figure 3.3Ralph Rumney, Psychogeographic map of Venice, 1957.


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4 Ibid.

5 Simon Ford, The Situationist International: A Users Guide, (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2005), 34.

6 Thomas McDonough, Fluid Spaces: Constant and the Situationist Critique of Architecture, in The Activist Drawing: Retracing Situationist Architecture fromConstants New Babylon to Beyond, ed. Catherine de Zegher and Mark Wigley (New York: The Drawing Center, 2001), 94.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid., 93.

9 Ibid.

10 Xavier Coates, Le Grand Jeu Venir: Situationist Urbanism, Daidalos67 (1998): 76.

11 Ibid.

Sequence & Uncertainty | 27


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Yokohama Port Terminal

In 1995 the commission for the design of the Yokohama Port Terminal was awarded

to Foreign Office Architects (FOA), a young husband and wife team based in London, England.

Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Farshid Mousavi, 31 and 29 respectively when they won, previously worked

for OMA. According to Lucy Bullivant, It was the concept of a space where travelers and citizens

could interact, of the city penetrating the ocean, that ultimately won them the competition.1 The

organic form and looping circulation of the terminal extend the public realm of two nearby parks

out into a harbor. Likewise, the building is a gateway to the city for thousands of visitors, including

those traveling on the sixty cruise vessels that dock at the terminal each year. The design of the port

terminal not only addresses the technical requirements of an international port of call, but also the

social challenges inherent in public places.The design concept of the Yokohama International Port Terminal reflects FOAs philosophy

to extend cultural and technical boundaries.2 According to Zaera-Polo, FOA considered the terminal

an extension of Yamashita Park onto the Bay as well as a hybrid between a park and a building,

a landscape and a structure.3 In order to meet the technical challenges of the design, the architects

used computer-generated local vector systems similar to those used by naval architects. In addition

to the difficulty of communicating a non-Cartesian based design to the building community, the

project was complicated by the citys decision to split it into thirds and award each part to a different

contractor. Though the involvement of multiple contractors and manufacturers challenged the

architects ability to maintain consistency over the course of the project, the simplicity of the projects

palette (glass, steele and Brazilian Ipe for the decking), ultimately yielded a unified building. The final

terminal combines landscape, terminal and circulation in a dynamic, origami-inspired building.

The concept of flow through, around and over the 1400 foot long terminal emerged as a

key programmatic consideration in the design process. Locals and travelers alike are compelled into


Figure 3.4Yokoham Port Terminal

Figure 3.5Yokoham Port Terminal, aerial view.

Figure 3.6Yokoham Port Terminal, view from the deck.


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an organic system of surfaces and voids.4 Pedestrians move through the building by way of the

glass lozenge5 elevator centrally located in the building or one of ten gently sloping ramps that flank

central spaces and lead up to the 120,000 square foot roof deck and down to the parking area for 400

cars. The roof deck, the most artful space at the terminal6 includes a 500-seat amphitheater, grassy

knolls, plantings and sunshades along one side. The ramp system helps make the terminal an exemplar

of universal design considerate of Japans aging population. Car passengers, whether departing or

arriving, drive onto the roof deck and then snake their way down to the lower level parking. However,

the pedestrian remains the central concern in the Mbius strip building with uninterrupted

expanses of floor space that invite aimless wandering,7 reminiscent of the Situationists drive

experiments in the mid twentieth century.Though the buildings urban and pedestrian considerations are the main interest of this

thesis, the technical challenges inherent in the nature of the building are also important to note.

First, it was difficult for the architects to reconcile the spatial requirements for ship boarding with the

existing site conditions. In order to accommodate the uniform gangplank size of docking vessels, all

decks of the terminal needed to be equidistant from boats anchored on the apron edges. In response

to this condition, FOA cantilevered the terminal 10-16 feet on one side and up to 56 feet on the other.

As a result, though the terminal building is pretty much symmetrical, it is not centered on the new

pier, a 162 foot landfill strip surrounded by an apron with ship mooring. To provide visual balance,

FOA placed boxy offices and shops beneath the inboard ends of the longer cantilevers. The unusual

construction of the terminal allows for its three story structure, including underground parking,

the ground-floor passenger terminal and the rooftop plaza/park. The column-free structure of the

building has two parts: folded steel plates that accommodate transverse loads and bridge-like steel

girders for longitudinal loads and support of the cantilevers. The girders, basically large-scale folds


Figure 3.7Yokoham Port Terminal, view from the deck.

Figure 3.8Yokoham Port Terminal, vehicular entrance.


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reminiscent of Japanese origami, are trough-shaped and hollow in cross-section. In contrast to the massive

steel framework of the structure, the featherweight finish materials and appurtenances attached to it8

include: untreated wood-deck flooring, faceted glazing, cable-stayed scrim and a system of projecting steel

triangles across the largest transverse spans.

The sequence of movement through the Yokohama Port Terminal dictates much

of its design. However, instead of orienting the circulation in the most efficient, economical direction,

the architects intentionally meandered and looped it to allow individuals to wander. The curves and

undulations of the roof, walls and floor planes literally soften transitions in the building and blur

distinctions between city, landscape and building. The biomorphic roofscape defies Bernard Tschumis

contention that spatial and programmatic sequence rarely overlap.

9

Endnotes

1 Lucy Bullivant, Yokohamas Custom-made Ferry Terminal, inMetropolis22, (2002): 101.

2 Ibid, 105.

3 Ibid, 101.

4 Peter Slatin and C.C. Sullivan, Open Architecture inArchitecture92, no. 2 (2003): 69.

5 Ibid, 69.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid, 69.

8 Sullivan, 2003, 72.

9 Bernard Tschumi Sequences inArchitecture and Disjunction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.



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Conclusion and Methodology

| 31


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Conclusion and Methodology

Contents | 32

Literature and cinema progress through complex interactions of sequence: mind and vision are

stimulated to assemble disparate elements, depicted in different times and spaces, into cohesive wholes.

Because the language of film and literature are universally familiar, writers and filmmakers sometimes

manipulate expectations through incomplete, contrasting, and unrelated sequences. The functional

requirements of architectural sequences preclude the direct translation of literary and cinematic concepts

to architecture. However, the adaptation of cinematic techniques in architecture, illustrated at Villa Savoye

and other precedents reviewed in the thesis, results in complex, dynamic interactions of the body and

space in architectural.

Despite the constraints of real time and space, architects like Le Corbusier, Diller + Scofidio,

and FOA, frame complex sequences that incorporate vertical and horizontal relations. The fragmentationof experience through diverse paths allows the architect to reflect, anticipate and interrupt the visual

path without necessarily contradicting the forward progress of the body. At Barcelona Pavilion and Villa

Savoye, the architect directs the experience of the individual much like a director manipulates the audience

in a film. In contrast, the Situationists, an avant-garde movement in Paris in the mid twentieth century,

rejected notions of control in favor of freedom of movement and experience. In place of the nuanced,

directed paths of Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, the Situationist city of New Babylon includes

wide-open spaces and labyrinthine passageways that encourage rather than dictate movement. In contrast

to most architecture, the non-progressive spaces of New Babylon discourage representation as a cohesive

whole. Instead, the journey becomes the objective rather than the destination.

The methodology adopted for the design of a ferry terminal in Boston, Massachusetts requires

thoughtful consideration of users, site, and the internal and external relations of sequence identified in the

thesis. During the site selection process, census data was used to create user profiles for two sites under

consideration. Once Fan Pier in South Boston was chosen as the location for the terminal, it was possible

Conclusion and Methodology | 32


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Contents | 33

to organize users into four main groups that recall the cast assembled in TschumisMT 4, The Block.:

Commuters: habitual weekday users of mass transit. Generally, commuters travel during

morning and evening peak hours.

Convention Goers: people traveling from Logan Airport to hotels in the Fan Pier

development, South Boston, or directly to the new convention center.

Tourists: local and out-of-state visitors drawn to Fan Pier by the new Institute of

Contemporary Art, the Harborwalk, Tidal Pool and Park and the Childrens Museum.

Non-travelers: people other than travelers.

The amount of time spent in the terminal varies by user group. Commuters spend the least

amount of time in the terminal because they are the most familiar with the boat schedules, the layout of

the building and may purchase monthly passes that enable them to skip the ticket window. In contrast,

tourists spend the most time, besides the non-travelers, because they are least familiar with the building

and schedules and need to queue for tickets. Represented in diagram, the tourist path is a wandering line

and the commuter line is straight with an arrow that indicates direction. Both diagrams recall precedents

from the thesis; the meandering line corresponds to the organic sequences in the work of the Situationists

and at Yokohama Port Terminal and the straight line to the controlled ramp sequence at Villa Savoye and

the view sequence at Slow House. The extended time of the open sequence and compressed time of the

linear sequence correspond to different relations described by Tschumi Sequences. The meandering

line and extended time allow greater contradiction and variation in the sequence, such as the treatment

of space indifferently or in opposition to program. In contrast, the compressed time sequence limits the

terminal to its functional ideal. Contradiction or opposition that thwarts the progress of the compressed

sequence threatens the success of the building as a transit facility. The path of users through the terminal

was diagrammed in order to identify relationships among the user groups and the potential interplay



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Project: Method | 35


Figure 5.1


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Design Project

| 36


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Site

Contents | 37

The thesis site, Fan Pier in South Boston, was chosen from a short list of sites identified in the

BRAs Boston Harbor Passenger Water Transportation Plan, issued in 2000. The accessibility of development

plans for Fan Pier, its adjacency to cultural and economic developments, such as the new Institute of

Contemporary Art (ICA) and the Boston convention center, and existing transportation services like the

Silver Line, recommend it above other sites. In August 2005 the 20.5 acre Fan Pier parcel was sold by

the Pritzker family who owned the land for twenty years but failed to develop it beyond parking lots, the

Federal Courthouse and most recently, the ICA designed by architects Diller + Scofidio. In the Boston

community, the sale ignited hopes that development would move forward and transform the South Boston

Waterfront from an industrial port to the citys next commercial and housing frontier.1 However, the new

owners, like the Pritzkers, face an estimated $1.2 billion in development costs.

The Fan Pier project, as described in the1998 Fan Pier Development Plan, proposes eight

commercial buildings and the new Boston Institute for Contemporary Art. In an addendum written in

2000, the maximum building height of the development was reduced from approximately 300 feet to 244

feet. Likewise, open space was increased to 56.8% of the site. The site program includes:

One hotel (650 rooms)

Residential (675 units)

Office (1.233 million square feet)

Retail

Civic and cultural amenities

Major cultural spaces anchored by the Childrens Museum, New England Aquarium, and

Island Alliance

Site | 37


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Contents | 40Site | 40

Figure 5.4


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Contents | 43

Cycle time: 60 minutes (S. Shore)/120 minutes (N.

Shore)

Fleet required: 2 boats (S. Shore)/4 boats (N. Shore)

Ground Transportation to and from Fan Pier

Hyatt/Airport shuttle

Headway: 15 minutes

Frequency: 4 vehicles per hour

Capacity: 20 passengers per bus

Hourly capacity: 80 passengers per direction

Cycle time: 30 minutes

Fleet required: 2 buses

Downtown circulation/North Station shuttle

Will operate along the resurfaced artery

Connections to Aquarium Station (Blue Line), Haymarket (Green Line, Orange Line,

Express buses), and North Station (Green Line, Orange Line, commuter rail)

Headway: 10 minutes

Frequency: 6 vehicles per hour

Vessel Capacity: 60 passengers per bus Hourly capacity: 360 passengers per direction

Cycle time: 40 minutes

Fleet required: 4 buses

Program | 43


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Contents | 44

Fan Pier Berths

Two berths available for commuter vessels

Two berths available for inner-harbor water transportation vessels

Two berths available for 9 arrivals resulting in total of 18 passenger discharges between 6:00 AM

and 9:00 AM

Additional berthing for smaller vessels, including water taxis

Fan Pier berths capable of handling new high speed catamarans, the largest of the commuter

fleet with capacity of 400 passengers

General Terminal Design Criteria

All terminals should, to the degree feasible, accommodate multiple ferry functions to provide

intermodal transfer opportunities

All terminals must be fully accessible

Public landings and water taxi docks should be included and maintained at most primary and

secondary terminals

Landside support facilities should include ticketing, waiting, information and restrooms

Terminal functional designations

Primary: High volume, multiple use, hub/receiver location

Secondary: Medium volume, limited use, spoke/feeder location Water Taxi/Cultural Loop/Public landing: Low volume, limited use, may be combined with

public landing for touch and go use at multiple locations.

Ferry Route Service Functions

Transit Ferry Services: provide point to point, scheduled, year round, peak hour plus off peak

services including inner harbor services currently known as shuttles, outer harbor services

Program | 44


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Slatin, Peter and C.C. Sullivan. Open Architecture.Architecture92, no. 2 (2003): 67-74.

Tschumi, Bernard.Event-Cities: Praxis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1998.

Tschumi, Bernard. Illustrated Index: Themes from The Manhattan Transcripts. AA Files (July 1983): 65-74.

Tschumi, Bernard. The Manhattan Transcripts. New York: St. Martins Press, 1981.

Tschumi, Bernard. The Manhattan Transcripts. 2nd edition. London: Academy Editions, 1994.

Tschumi, Bernard. Sequences, inArchitecture and Disjunc tion. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.

Tschumi, Bernard and Irene Cheng. The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century, ed. Bernard Tschumi and

Irene Cheng, 11. New York: The Monacelli Press, 2003.

Vidler, Anthony. The Explosion of Space: Architecture and the Filmic Imaginary. In Film Architecture, ed. DietrichNeumann. Munich, Germany: Prestel-Verlag, 1996.

Bibliography | 48


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Appendix

| 49


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practice, Koolhaas cites his involvement in the IBA (Internationale Bauausstellung). He and Oswald Ungers disagreed

with the decision by Leon Krier, Aldo Rossi and Josef Paul Kliehues to make of Berlin a test-case city for the

reconstruction of the European city.6 Eschewing a traditional approach to rebuilding the city, Koolhaas envisioned

Berlin as a sort of territorial archipelago,7 a system of architectural islands and voids (forests and lakes) in which

the infrastructure could play without causing damage.8 Koolhaas concedes that maintaining open space in or near

the city opposes the current frenzy to fill, to stop up9 urban space and so may at first seem an unpopular solution.

However, besides the aesthetic virtues of maintaining open space, he provides two pragmatic reasons urban voids

should be one of, if not the only, principal lines of combat for people interested in the city.10 For one, full volumes

and agglomerate shapes, the familiar domain of architects, are less easy to control than open space. Secondly,

emptiness, landscape and space can draw quick support compared to the controversies that usually accompany

proposals for the built environment. Koolhaas embraces the much-maligned conditions of the modern city, including

the urban fringe, and advocates interpretation of the city through existing context. Thus, the decreased density and

voids that identify the urban fringe should be exaggerated, maintained and reinterpreted in time as the fringe becomes

more closely identified with and even consumed by the city.

In contrast to Koolhaas proposals for the preservation and exaggeration of voids at the urban fringe, Wolf

Prix, the founder of Coop Himmelb(l)au advocates the realization of space within the city. Prix identifies space and

space-making, as opposed to Koolhaas preservation of existing space, as the new domain of the architect.

Wolf Prix attributes the tendency to fill up urban voids, identified by Koolhaas, to the privatization ofurban space in Western cities. Without sufficient funds, local authorities are unable to play active roles in urban

planning and so take a back seat as private investors pursue the most valuable real estate in the city. As such, it is a

game whose end is easily predictable: architecture will end up as infrastructure built to maximize profits within the

global economy.11 In contrast to Koolhaas, Prix argues for a vigorous new urbanism in which architects reinstate

urban space within the city. As the urban background (the interstitial and few unclaimed territories in the city)

Appendix | 51


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Henri Lefebvre, and the writings, films and politics of Guy Debord. In Theory of Everyday LifeLefebvre avows the

right to the city as a place of pleasure and enjoyment independent of the imperatives of the economy.15 His

characterization of the city encouraged the Situationist view of urban space as the site of the individuals struggle

against alienation.16 In the article Theses on Cultural Revolution, Guy Debord identifies the Situationist goal as

immediate participation in a passionate abundance of life, through the variation of fleeting moments resolutely

arranged.17 Debords fleeting moments correspond to the groups interest in situations. Sitatuations are defined

by Debord as the construction of a transitory microenvironment and the play of events for a unique moment

in the life of several persons.18 In practice, situations emerged from the concepts of drive, urban wandering, and

dtournement, related to montage, explored later in this thesis. In turn, the S ituationist critique of society and urbanism

anticipated New Babylon, a futuristic utopian city largely based on the political and social messages conveyed

in Debords film Society of the Spectacle. In Society of the Spectacle, Debord describes urbanisms freezing of life in

response to capitalism at the expense of restless becoming in the progression of time.19 As such, architecture is

characterized by a predominance of tranquil side-by-sideness, a confining force and complement of the bourgeois

world that literally held one in place.20 As evidence of urbanisms confining force, Debord refers to a study in the

movement of a young bourgeois woman is mapped over the course of a year and revealed to be a small triangle

with no deviations.21

The design of the futurist city New Bablyon attempts to reconcile Situationist theory to the built

environment and create an architecture of presence.22

New Bablyon, conceived by the Situationist architectConstant, envisions a society shaped by the Situationist critique. Constant believed that automation would free

people from work and lead to a future characterized by leisure and freedom of movement. Suspended high above

the earths surface, New Babylon would accommodate humanitys nomadic wanderers.23 The spatial concept of New

Babylon opposes classical models of the city and the ideals of functionalist urbanism formulated at the CIAM in the

1920s and 1930s. Thus, New Babylon represents a reaction against the ville verteor green city with its isolated high

Appendix | 53


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rises that thwart direct contact and shared activities among people,24 a critique later echoed by Rem Koolhaas in

his essay Toward the Contemporary City. In contrast to the green city, New Babylon creates social spaces where

the inhabitants of the city mingle and interact. As mentioned, in New Babylon, Constant attempts to translate the

Situationist concept of driveinto built form. Specifically, he resists the fixed nature of architectures in order to

realize a structure characterized by change. The result is a playful megastructuralism.25 Besides being large, the

space of New Babylon appears labyrinthine. Recalling the drawings of the late nineteenth century architect Giuseppe

Piranesi, in place of optimal orientation preference is given to a loss of orientation conducive to adventure, play

and creativity.26 Symbolically, the labyrinth does not represent a path toward a single goal, but rather a web of many

unknowns and variables.27

The work of Rem Koolhaas, Wolf Prix, Constant and the Situationists resist aesthetics as the prime

motivation for urban projects. Though their philosophies differ, their sensitivity to urban space results in solutions

that relate contextually to their environments. A similar approach is employed and eloquently expressed by Akram

Abu Hamdan in Thematic Architecture: Significance + Urban Interaction. Hamdens practice is defined by

buildings that generate urban space and buildings that are of themselves urban spaces.28 Equally, he engages work

with the conviction that, the issue of human interaction is much more valid than that of aesthetics and that style,

trends and treatments pertaining to artistic expression should emerge as by-products of this interaction and not be at

the core of it.29

Appendix | 54


65/66

Endnotes

1 Bernard Tschumi and Irene Cheng, eds. The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21stCentury, (New York: The Monacelli Press,

2003), 11.

2 Kate Nesbitt, ed., Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture(New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), 322.

3 Ibid, 323.

4 Rem Koolhaas, Toward the Contemporary City, in Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture, ed. Kate Nesbitt (New York:Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), 329.


6

Ibid.

7

8 RM

9


11 Wolf Prix,, in The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21stCentury, eds. Bernard Tschumi and Irene Cheng (New York: TheMonacelli Press, 2003), 18.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.


15 Ibid.

Appendix | 55


66/66

16 Ibid.

17 Thomas McDonough, Fluid Spaces: Constant and the Situationist Critique of Architecture in The Activist Drawing, ed.


19 Thomas McDonough, Fluid Spaces: Constant and the Situationist Critique of Architecture in The Activist Drawing, ed. 94

20 Thomas McDonough, Fluid Spaces: Constant and the Situationist Critique of Architecture in The Activist Drawing, ed. 94.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid, 93.

23 Ibid, 93.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.


27 Ibid.

28 Akram Abu Hamden, inAnytime, ed. Cynthia C. Davidson (New York: Anyone Corporation, 1999), 29.

29 Ibid.

Appendix | 56

sequencin in architecture

Documents