Not Really...A Thesis

by Kalan Rutstein

Kal

an R

utst

einNot Really...

A Thesis

by Kalan Rutstein

Advised by Andrew Atwoodand Ajay Manthripagada

U.C Berkeley College of Environmental Design2014

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Contents

Introduction.................................1

What?..........................................3

How.............................................17

False Backdrop................29

Forced Perspective..........39

Mirrors.............................47

Proposal.....................................53

Notes............................................70

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This thesis explores the space between real and fake. It will begin

with an exploration of fake places, fake materials, and false perspective,

among other fake things, with the ultimate goal of employing these

investigations in the design of a hostel. Specific moments within the program will be prioritized, such as the lobby, hallways, and rooms.

The medium of scenic design will be investigated in order to learn

techniques of spatial illusion.

Finally, experiments of creating and breaking illusion spatially will

be conducted, captured and analyzed.

Introduction

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We constantly and persistently try to escape reality. Movies,

novels, and theater are just a few of the mediums that we have created to

transport us. The best fiction is grounded in reality - it lets us simultaneously lose ourselves and find ourselves. I propose an Architecture that, like a work of fiction, re-situates us in order to situate us.

What?The fake and false

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Fra

u Im

Mon

d by

Fri

tz L

ang

1

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Fake Place Fake place strives to re-situate the inhabitant by concealing and suppressing evidence of actual place. It fabricates a space that pretends to be

something that it isn’t.

Fake place forces a process of reconciliation between the real and the

false.

People from time immemorial have sought the thrill of this re-situat-ing effect through books, theater, music, film, and so on.

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Fra

u Im

Mon

d by

Fri

tz L

ang

2

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Arc

hite

ctur

al D

evic

e F

or A

For

syth

e M

ovem

ent b

y Pe

ter

Wel

z 3

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Fake Material Fake material assists the production of fake place by taking away the

physical and logistical limitations of real materials. Ask a fake brick what it

wants to be and it will tell you that it doesn’t care.

The creation of fake material is not just an opportunity to mimic, but

an opportunity to adjust reality. Concrete can be made more or less brutal,

wood more or less organic.

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Arc

hite

ctur

al D

evic

e F

or A

For

syth

e M

ovem

ent b

y Pe

ter

Wel

z 4

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Sant

a M

aria

pre

sso

San

Sati

ro b

y D

onat

o B

ram

ante

and

Gio

vann

i A

nton

io A

mad

eo 5

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False Perspective False perspective has been used in theater and film to control and adjust scale and depth when circumstances limit them.

Believability is certainly one reason to adjust perspective, but it is

also an opportunity to reconstruct reality and present us with a new frame

through which we can peer and walk.

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Sant

a M

aria

pre

sso

San

Sati

ro b

y D

onat

o B

ram

ante

and

Gio

vann

i A

nton

io A

mad

eo 6

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The hostel could be anywhere, but must be placed somewhere; so I

will place it in San Francisco. It will be designed as a series of illusive mo-ments surrounded by standard hotel/hostel spaces such as kitchens, quarters,

dining rooms, multipurpose rooms, etc. The illusive effects will take place

in the lobby, the hallways, and the rooms. At times the real and the fake

will blend into each other, creating the experience of being transported and

grounded simultaneously.

Where?A Hostel

12

Gra

nd B

udap

est H

otel

by

Wes

And

erso

n 7

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Lobby The lobby will be the first illusive space. The lobby has a clear frontality and program. We enter it and walk straight to the reception desk.

This moment provides the perfect opportunity to illicit spectacle and illusion

because the inhabitant’s view point and movement are controlled. Followed

by the grand entrance is the mundane experience of waiting around for

the room to be readied or for someone to take your bags. This is when one

might look back and notice the mechanics that created illusion. The sense of

wonderment tires and is replaced by a fascination with the machine.

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Gra

nd B

udap

est H

otel

by

Wes

And

erso

n

8

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14

The

Shi

ning

by

Stan

ley

Kub

rick

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Hallway Like the lobby there is a frontal relationship that creates a one point

perspective. In the hallway, the view and movement of the person is even

more controlled. This opportunity is rarely capitalized upon. Typically

the doors are monotonous, the carpet drab and repetitive, and the overall

experience bleak. There is an opportunity to create a dynamic and shifting

space by adjusting the rhythm of repeating doors and carpet pattern, forcing

the perspective in exciting and unexpected ways and alluding to multifarious

spaces behind the walls and doors.

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The

Shi

ning

by

Stan

ley

Kub

rick

10

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16

2001

: A

Spa

ce O

dyss

ey b

y St

anle

y K

ubri

ck 1

1

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Room While the first impression is important in the ‘lobby’, lasting impression is crucial in the ‘room’. You will spend most of your time here performing your most intimate functions. Your movement in the room is less expected and controllable than it is in the lobby and hallway, so the illusion

relies less on points of view and more on perception over time.

Because one ‘lives’ in this space, there is an opportunity to drastically re-situate the inhabitant by subverting his notions about such perfunctory functions as sleeping. Perhaps the interior can pretend to be an

exterior that lets you sleep, shower, and shave in simultaneously new and

familiar ways.

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2001

: A

Spa

ce O

dyss

ey b

y St

anle

y K

ubri

ck

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My Fair Lady set design by Robert Carsen 13

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I will investigate techniques and principles of scenic design, a

medium wholly concerned with pretense, to inform my process of creating

illusive space.

The key difference between a person that watches a film or play and one that stays at this hotel is mobility. His position is fixed in the former, and dynamic in the latter. Some of my design will adapt to address this

change but much of it will intentionally stay the same. In such a space one

might walk in and be exhilarated or overwhelmed by the spectacle and then

grounded by proverbially and actually peering behind the curtain.

How?Scenic Design

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Ele

ctro

nic

Cit

y se

t des

ign

by P

aul G

elin

as 1

4

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Black Box With scenic design, it is important to understand the space one is

designing within. The black box is one of two main spaces in theater. In it,

pretense is made explicit. The machinery assisting the fakery is ever present

and on display along with the play. Plays that take place in black boxes often

focus attention on the performer because their ability to create illusion is

limited by the architecture of the space within which everything is exposed.

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Cen

tre

Pom

pido

u by

Ren

zo P

iano

and

Ric

hard

Rog

ers

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Chr

oma

Set d

esig

n by

Joh

n P

awso

n 1

6

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Proscenium In a proscenium, the spectacle is controlled. The theater machine

disappears and we are allowed to escape. The audience simultaneously

focuses on what is contained by the frame and what exists beyond it.

When belief is totally suspended we imagine the world of the play beyond

the frame, and when reality periodically sets in we fix upon the machine assisting the illusion.

21

Inte

rior

by

John

Paw

son

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When we enter this room our thoughts center on the tree and the

mechanism in place that shows it to us.

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In this room the mechanism is no longer visible and the extents of

the room are unknown. The space prompts us to ask ourselves what exists

beyond this room.

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When we cross the threshold of the frontal view, the illusion is

broken. The space becomes a conflation of what we see from the front, the back, and in between. The perceived and the real flicker and we experience space as expanding and contracting.

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The

Sal

k In

stit

ute

by L

ouis

Kah

n 1

8

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The Salk Institute is a built example of a space that oscillates be-tween hiding and exposing. The stairs and offices are obscured from one side creating a space that isn’t about laboratories.

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The

Sal

k In

stit

ute

by L

ouis

Kah

n 1

9

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When we pass the frontal plane the machine is revealed.

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Idom

eneo

set

des

ign

by J

osef

Svo

boda

20

Wiz

ard

of O

z, p

rodu

ctio

n de

sign

by

Mal

colm

Bro

wn,

Wil

liam

Hor

ning

, Jac

k M

arti

n Sm

ith

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The proscenium necessitates a number of techniques that extend

space and heighten illusion. The false backdrop is one of the oldest

theatrical conventions. It allows the audience to see for miles in a space 30

feet deep.

False Backdrop

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In this room the actual view isn’t important. Light enters through

frosted glass illuminating a fake mountain range.

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As one walks through the space, mountains get impossibly stretched

and contorted. The room oscillates between enclosed and expansive, natural

and strange.

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In this room, the view through a small punched window is framed by

a backdrop that completes the view. When the real and fake sync up, we see

what we would through a floor to ceiling window - except the world outside will undoubtedly change and the backdrop will not.

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The uncanny view is made stranger when the real and fake no longer

line up.

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Teat

ro O

lim

pico

by

And

rea

Pal

ladi

o 2

2Sp

ada

Col

onad

e by

Bar

tolo

meo

Bar

onin

o 2

3

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Forced perspective, like the backdrop, extends space and has the

added benefit of allowing us walk through and experience shifting perspec-tive.

Forced Perspective

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In this hallway a fake marble floor and fake travertine walls cant inward to create false perspective. They also bend to make concave surfaces

that create a fish eye lens effect. The chamber pretends to be larger than it is - as a real thing and as the photo of itself.

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Cues of the trick are emphasized by the contrast between the inclined

bent surfaces inside and the planar ones outside; between the scrunching of

the pattern of floor panels inside and the regular pattern of panels 10 feet away.

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When we step out of the chamber the machine is prominently ex-pressed, emphasizing the divide between our experience in the chamber and

our experience out of it.

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La

Trav

iata

set

des

ign

by J

osef

Svo

boda

24

Don

Gio

vann

i, se

t des

ign

by M

icha

el L

evin

e 2

5

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Mirrors in theater have been used to break up the fixed frontal view, to extend space, and to force the audience to acknowledge themselves – one

of the most dissonant moments in proscenium theater.

Mirrors

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In this hallway, parallel mirrors on the sides and a mirror leaning

forwards at the end of the hall create the perception of infinite space.

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As we step into the mirror space, we are confronted with multiples of

ourselves. The illusion is both broken and intensified. Space becomes both confined and endless and we grapple with what’s real and what isn’t.

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La

Trav

iata

set

des

ign

by J

osef

Svo

boda

24

Don

Gio

vann

i, se

t des

ign

by M

icha

el L

evin

e 2

5

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In this thesis, illusory techniques from set design are employed with-in a hostel to create spaces that oscillate between stable and unstable, real

and contrived.

Proposal

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Partitions act like a proscenium. As you walk through the lobby, program

reveals itself. You experience sections through the image of a landscape at sunset that was perceptible as you entered. The further in, the more disrupted the pretty picture

becomes.

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As you make your way to your room you pass through a double loaded

corridor. On different floors the experience is varied, but on the third you see an ersatz image of hills and sky reflected in water. The tight one point perspective is strongly juxtaposed by the image of a landscape in elevation. This makes for the most

extreme warping of the image as you walk through it, as opposed to the way it stops

and staggers as you pass through the image in the lobby.

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In this hallway perspective is forced by descending arch heights. The space is

expanded with mirrored walls that multiply the arches infinitely.

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In this room, you are met with light and diffuse colors that contrast the deep

saturated hallway. Hills are more refined through varied color that show concavity and convexity.

In the lobby, the neo-classical architecture is masked to let the image dominate. In this room the architecture and the image conflate. Even the blinds are applied with the image. As you adjust them for light, an abrupt disturbance is created

when you see the building across the street.

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On the north side, a smaller room pretends to be the more glamorous room

on the south side. A panorama and a one point perspective collide to soften the

warping. The distortions more subtly unfold as you walk into the space. The space

you experience physically is forced to reconcile with the space you are experience

optically. You can’t rely on form and the shadows it produces to define your experience in the space.

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Notes

1 Image courtesy of http://www.stummfilmkonzerte.de/glossar/stummfilme/frauimmond.html

2 Image courtesy of http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2010/04/fritz-langs-woman-in-the-moon-testament-of-dr-mabuse-cinefantastique-podcast-111/

3 Image courtesy of http://www.peterwelz.com/02.html

4 Image courtesy of http://www.peterwelz.com/02.html

5 Image courtesy of http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Goldmund100

6 Image courtesy of http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Goldmund100

7 Image courtesy of http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-03-26-at-6.42.06-PM.png

8 Image courtesy of http://uproxx.com/filmdrunk/2014/03/grand-budapest-hotel-behind-the-scenes-release-schedule/

9 Image courtesy of http://cdn.overclock.net/e/e0/e0a7feff_Ekubrick2.jpeg

10 Image courtesy of http://filmmakeriq.com/images/danny-lloyd-on-the-set-of-the-shining/

11 Image courtesy of http://www.collativelearning.com/the%20shining%20-%20chap%2015.html

12 Image courtesy of http://www.digititles.com/movies/2001-a-space-odyssey-1968/pho-tos/behind-the-scenes-filming

13 Image courtesy of http://www.sceneweb.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Christine-Arand-dans-le-r%C3%B4le-dEliza-Doolittle-%C2%A9-Marie-No%C3%ABlle-Robert-Th%C3%A9%C3%A2tre-du-Ch%C3%A2telet.jpg

14 Image courtesy of http://jiyounchang.com/past-show-archive/

15 Image courtesy of http://www.archdaily.com/149901/architecture-city-guide-paris/cen-tre-georges-pompidou-all-rights-reserved-by-chimay-bleue/

71

16 Image courtesy of http://www.johnpawson.com/works/chroma/

17 Image courtesy of http://www.johnpawson.com/works/plain-space-exhibition/

18 Image courtesy of http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/12-post-your-pho-tos/221340-architecture-salk-institute-la-jolla-california.html

19 Image courtesy of http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:File_Upload_Bot_(Magnus_Manske)

20 Image courtesy of http://theredlist.com/wiki-2-20-881-1399-1143-view-opera-profile-opera-collection.html

21 Image courtesy of http://maxseesmovies.blogspot.com/2011/12/10-wizard-of-oz.html

22 Image courtesy of http://philip.greenspun.com/images/pcd0803/vicenza-te-atro-olimpico-straight-80

23 Image courtesy of http://timelessitaly.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/20131101-101017.jpg

24 Image courtesy of Jeff Busby

25 Image courtesy of http://www.michaellevinestudio.com/work