Architectural Absence: a discussion on the embodiment of the unfamiliar and familiar

Andy Lin

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Paper

College of Design, Construction, and Planning

UFID: RedactedRedacted

Space exists whether or not we act upon it or lay idle to it. However, in the action of

intervention, the uncontrollable tendency to build in the absence of something puts into

question our true understanding of the quality of a given space. Although the Minimalist

movement explores the essence or true identity of a subject through only the purely essential

forms, the common generalization of simplicity and its association with the Minimalist

movement fails to be an appropriate description. For a blank canvas or a form-worked

concrete wall can become anything but simple, yet instead emphasizes the object's pure

quality of existence. In Plato's Republic, where he delineates the meaning of a true image, it

states the ultimate imitator as the painter, who produces an image but does not entirely

understand the essence of the subject he paints1. This image, in which the painter paints, is

the common preconception of what and how we commonly view an object. However, what

Minimalism suggests is to blur the thin boundaries between image and nature, muting our

preconceptions, thus forcing us to see, or to listen, or to touch. A void which is seemingly

empty reveals itself to be full of life and complexities because of the presence of a mass.

To elaborate on this discussion, there regularly appears to be an imbalance between positive

and negative within architecture, with a significant weight on positive. Though clearly debated

throughout history, their existence is dependent of one another, and even can be traced to

coinciding definition similar with the other. In Freud’s essay The Uncanny, he explains his

discovery of the German word “unheimlich”, meaning uncanny, being a sub-species

of“heimlich”, the German word for familiarity and belonging to home. Philosopher Friedrich W.

J. Schelling explains that everything uncanny is that which ought to have remained hidden

and secret, but comes to light. 2 Therefore something originally shielded from light can

1 Plato, The Collected Dialogues of Plato (Pantheon, 1963)2 Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny (Imago, Bd V., 1919)

eventually reveal itself, orienting its surroundings, but, just as quickly as it appeared, can

retreat back into darkness. Nonetheless this something can exist in both light and dark, and

subsequently requires both light and dark. Without a correspondence between the two, any

form of significance and distinction are obliterated and our senses are left with a subject truly

disorienting.

But we see where light exist, darkness must be in its presence. With the presence of

something, referring previously to a minimalist ideal, there must be nothing there; Where

there is nothing, something is always there. The concept of this basic coexistence is

prominent in John Cage's controversial composition 4' 33”, a three movement piece where

the performer sits quietly on stage for four minutes thirty-three seconds in silence. Although it

is easy to see the controversy in this, but what one must understand is that within the silence

of the entire piece we hear noises: chairs squeaking, people coughing, the stopwatch ticking.

In Cage's Lecture on Something he cites Morton Feldman, a pioneer of indeterminate music

in the 20th century, as saying “Not one sound fears the silence that extinguishes it. And no

silence exists that is not pregnant with sound”3. It is then clear, in 4' 33” we notice silence is

never purely an absence, but is rich with noises and life. Likewise sounds can only be

determined with only the silence in which impedes on it.

Among several of my studies, prominent in my works is the fascination of the play between

both the absence of “something” and the presence of “nothing”. This concept expresses itself

thoroughly within the Dolo market charrette, which takes into heavy consideration the

historical and archaeological palimpsest left over time. Dolo gave a unique configuration,

being situated along the Brenta River, one of the primary rivers which lead to Venice. Running

3 John Cage, Silence (Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecticut 1961).

through the site which is now entirely infilled is the former water transport locks to

accommodate for the change in water levels due to the nearby water mill. What already

existed at the given site presented great difficulty in how one should intervene on such

historically rich site. My primary concern was how to reintroduce the locks in a way which

does not require me to physically manipulate them, yet integrate it seamlessly into the market.

Therefore, intrigued by the idea of reestablishing the past into the present, the formation and

attitude of the market follows the concept of buoyant, temporary masses which appear to be

afloat among the presently infilled ground (fig. 1 and 2).

(fig. 1) plan view of market space (fig. 2) sketch of submerged masses

The former lock, if it should contain any form inset within it, is necessary to stand alone with

thoughtful but minimal intervention in order to maintain the sense of the original space. To

refer back to the concept of a presence of nothing to suggest the former presence of

something, lock space was depressed to lower elevation to return the space close to its

original depth, then the plane is tilted upward to return to the present ground level. The plane

is split into six separate panels which appear to never touch each other or the historical walls

of the lock (fig 3).

(fig. 3) plan of existing lock and inlaid panels

With the absence of any hint of how each panel is structured, they convey an ephemeral

placement which emphasizes what is already there. Furthermore, as the lock was previously

filled with water, on each panel native grasses overgrow the tilted plane implying a translation

of manifestation into another element (fig. 4).

(fig. 4) detail section of tilted ground

Presenting an absence of something within the lock therefore emphasizes the grand scale of

the existing space. It is left untouched and left to run its own course in time, aging

appropriately as it would. The way the lock attaches to the nearby bridge also displays a

similar strategy of expressing an extreme opposite in order to convey a single idea. As the

constructed plane slips underneath the bridge the ground must be able to direct the occupant

toward the walls of the bridge interior, the location of the original gate for the locks. The

ground appears to shy away from the walls, leaving an inexpressibly darkened space (fig. 5).

(fig. 5) plan of space beneath bridge

In opposition to framing a specific space with light, the space is uses darkness to express an

ultimate depth which one cannot experience. One may even say the gap reveals the “dark

space” below, the matter in which the ground is constructed upon. Eugene Minkowski and

Roger Caillois explains that darkness is “filled”, touching an individual indirectly, enveloping

him, penetrating him, and passing through him4. Our perception on dark space, in contrast to

light space, is perhaps flipped, where darkness may be the intruded rather that the intruder.

The absence of light underneath the bridge accents the space, as light would do, but the

darkness psychologically reacts to the viewer's sense of space expanding it below him (fig. 6).

(fig. 6) section of bridged space, gaps open far below ground plane

4 Anthony Vidler, The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992).

Although the two previous examples discussed were only details of certain project, the idea of

expressing absolute emptiness through construction further represents itself in the project

Expositional Excavations (fig.7).

(fig. 7) axonometric of platform in Basilica Palladiana

Given a specific performer, in this case a cellist, a platform is designed to present a theater

with a direct relationship to its context, the Basilica Palladiana. With the larger proportions of

the cello and its ability to dominantly resonate within a space, the instrument is a vessel of

musical vibrations which is delicately grounded by a single pin. The purpose of the platform is

to present a space which entirely grounds the performer to utilize the Basilica as a sound box

(fig. 8).

(fig. 8) section of platform

The literal platform only acts as the object which is responsible for the footprint, a two meter

excavation below revealing a speculation of what might exist underneath the platform.

Therefore seen in profile, the platform is nearly non-existent but dominantly present through

an alternative sense. Similar to John Cage's piece 4' 33”, the platform acts as a resonating

ground floor which, when the cellist is not present, might amplify the life which naturally

happens: footsteps, voices, anything and everything which exists as background or

foreground. Although it may appear to just be a cacophonous spectrum of noise, the platform

questions whether or not the unpleasant is merely the naturally occurring. Perhaps what we

perceive as “background” is not a blank canvas but instead is full of imperfections and traces

left from transient sounds. The Laozi, a Chinese philosophical classic text, refers to emptiness

as being a latent background to all things, constituting itself a stock from which is possible to

have something present itself. This background is the reason for which sound is able to

resonate, or a brush stroke is able to vibrate5. Within this nothingness, emerges something

the longer we stare, listen, or touch.

The perceptible world is commonly recognized through the principle of opposites. In

architecture, there is the mass which opposes void. In music, there is the pitch sound, or a

note, which opposes the interval of silence, or a rest. In physics, there is Isaac Newton's Third

Law of Motion which states “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. In color,

Josef Albers describes colors as being seen in relation to the colors it is surrounded by or

those which contrasts it. There is no doubt that the concept of opposites nearly contradicts

itself, considering opposites must, to some degree, exist within each other to be anything at

all. In nature, for instance the laws of physics and theory of color mentioned earlier, there is

an apparent balance between the two which maintains order in our natural world. However,it

is in architecture where an imbalance frequently occurs. There is a common affinity towards

the mass rather than the void, or light rather than dark. In previous projects I sought to

explore these unfamiliar qualities and speculated whether our conceptual ideas of space can

perhaps be overturned to become an unfamiliar architecture. Indeed a space can be left

empty, as opposed to full, but how can emptiness become so exaggerated to the point of

becoming full? The embodiment of both constitutes an ultimate freedom and a feeling of

liberation, uncovering an unfamiliar beauty within architecture.

5 Francois Jullien, A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking (University of Hawaii Press, 2004).

Bibliography

John Cage, Silence (Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecticut 1961).

Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny (Imago, Bd V., 1919)

Francois Jullien, A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking (University of Hawaii Press, 2004).

Plato, The Collected Dialogues of Plato (Pantheon, 1963)

Anthony Vidler, The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992).