Saturday, June 27, 2009

Texts

If anyone wants to post their three sentence statements as comments to this post, I'll be happy to return comment and suggestions here too.

Give the project a name.
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4 comments:

Katie Whitson said...

Souterrain

Montreal is a city about the underground. Out site is in one of the few places in Montreal that does not have one. Therefore, I wanted to show reveals in the site to the underground in order to tie it in with the city.

Our site (Old Montreal) seems pulled apart from the rest of the city because it does not have reveals into the underground. I want to have an underground building to our site hoping to provide a link between Old Montreal and the rest of the city. By having reveals to the volume from the site and the plaza.

Katie

June 29, 2009 at 9:15 AM
B.Rex said...

Souterrain Vague
Souterrain Transparence

Montréal has a particular sense of underground- "souterrain". This isn't a city in the ground but a city engaged with the ground line in which one is either above or below the ground and never "in" the ground in the sense of feeling compressed. There's always a surface in relief or transparence that seems to connect us to the abstract reality of "outside".

This is getting down to a "brass tacks" but I don't think the surface is pierced, as you suggest by introducing reveals, as the situation is more that the ground surface is manipulated across solid form and a gradient of transparent surface.

I think there's three things at play here- the space underground, the space above ground, and the surface of the ground.

Identify each "ground" state in your drawings and models.

How does the ground modulate between the two sides - obverse and reverse space when obverse is defined as underground?

The ground is a separate spatial issue from what spaces are on, above, and below it. How can it be modulated or manipulated to effect?

Sou is "Obverse" (the opposite or counterpoint to a fact). The terrain is a thin but primary crust across which lie two "obverse" worlds of solid /void , figure / ground, etc..

How the ground operates and opens up is particular to the city too. As you point out, over the last 40 years the city has developed a more transparent terrain. Make a catalog that defines the ground surface between superterrain and subterrain.

What is the nature of the space of the souterrain in Montréal?
What is the nature of the groundline or terrain in the city? Draw it.

Then make paper models of the surfaces in play. Label things lightly in pencil on key surfaces.

June 29, 2009 at 9:57 PM
B.Rex said...

Maybe you should think about the site ground as being dermal rather than a scrim between the above and below. If the grounds were perceived as being comprised of layers, like a stack of paper.

If that then how can you describe the space caught in air rather than ground? Is it all layered or just when it is subtractive form from solid ground?

June 29, 2009 at 10:02 PM
christina said...

The material is the thing. The entrance is the gateway to the thing. My building is layers of entrances.

Thresholds have the ability to envoke profound phonomenological changes in mood. My building is a means of eagress from the urban surroundings into an intimate learning environment. The materials of the building will support an educational ecology.

Mass and planar volumes articulate the path taken, even if only implied. Sequences of movement play unto eachother creating multiple experiences parallel to the need. The form weaves itself into the visual paths taken by the eye amongst the urban textile.

July 2, 2009 at 9:34 AM

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