Death in Leeds

Death In Leeds

Pedro Alban77147917Studio 3

Alex Otiv and Mark RistLeeds

United Kingdom

Studies and projects forLeeds Beckett st. cemetery

The Site - Initial Studies

Studies of Death - The Fuhrerbunker

Project 01 - Awareness Of The Ground

Project 02 - The Friends of Beckett Street Cemetery Institute

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Summary

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Playing With Death

The Site - Initial StudiesThrough technical and artistic means - from mappings to sketches and ‘body-measuring’ exercises - students engaged in group and individual research on Beckett Street Cemetery - its past, present and possible futures.

In spite of what it represented in the XX century, as a place for the gathering of memories and celebration of rituals in different religions (the site used to be divided, by a wall, into a catholic and a protestant area) the cemetery is now a ‘dead space’. The great - and growing - difference between those who were last buried (1984) and the present time dissolves a key element in the cemetery program: a link (of memory) between life and death.

People are no longer compelled to visit a cemetery where they do not have - or remember to have - any close relatives. The site is now used by dog walkers and kids as a park - not a negative feature, but surely one that points a recession of the previous program.

As program dissolves, so does profit. Unable to keep all of its area, Beckett cemetery sold both houses at its entrance. One of the houses window - that appeared to be a child’s room - now presents hanging plastic skeleton.

That is the current condition of the site: what was once sacred now is perceived as funny, what was memory now is perceived as merely space, Halloween outweighed more serious purposes of the site... Any further project was expected to make a stand on this subject. Retreat and preservation or move on and reinvention?

Stasis also governs the outer context of the cemetery. The 2014 map doesn’t differ heavily from the 1930 one (the major construction boom happened from 1890 to 1930 demanding new maps every 10 years).

A photographic survey identified textures and qualities that were valuable, though unexplored, in the site. In a context of almost complete recession, ‘stirring spaces’ presented a gripping proposition for the studio.

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Scale 1:2500

1890

Petros BarbozaLeeds Beckett University

Oct 06, 2014 14:57

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© Landmark Information Group Ltd and Crown copyright 2014. FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY.

Scale 1:2500

1900.2


Oct 06, 2014 15:05

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Scale 1:2500

1920


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1930


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Cemetery and Surroundings1890,1900,1920,1930

Ground In Section Opposition in Shadows

Context as PerceivedWood,Natural and Man-made

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Texture of Death

Boundary of Impact

Dusk and Reflection

Enclosure and Leaves

Boundary WallsSolids

Green Area

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Historic BoundariesCanopies of Visual Interest

Historic ChapelsRoad Network

Public Transport RoutesSun Path

Studies of Death - The Fuhrerbunker

Objects of Ceremony Places of Ceremony

As means of getting in touch with the more programmatic aspect of the site - namely death and its rituals of mourning - students were asked to develop an architectural analysis of a chosen ritual of death: its movements, objects, senses, movements, context, duration. Besides the collection of imagery and production of diagrams, a short film-essay should be produced - an overlap between still camera shots of the cemetery and a voiceover description of the chosen ritual.

Choosing a rather unusual ceremony of death - Hitler’s last days at the bunker - aimed for the study of a site context that was more definitive in the actual circumstances of the ritual (Hitler is forced into the bunker for his ‘final journey’ due to the arrival of allied forces in Berlin).

Research revealed other interesting - to some extent useful - peculiarities: A reverse relationship with the ground (when compared to the average funeral) leads to different movements and promenades in space. The materiality of the bunker leads - inevitably - to an architecture that lasts longer than its program ( a reality for Beckett St. Cemetery).

From the assembling of camera and text following movement - arrival, interior, departure - resulted an overlap in which the underground, as a correspondent of the site’s ‘inside-boundaries’ portion, is highlighted. The walls as context filters - that in text only allow for the sound of bombs to penetrate and in film for the canopies of certain buildings to achieve visibility - is also an ‘overlap-generated’ perception.

The hardness of the bunker against the fragility of its program opens the question: What to do with a post-program cemetery?

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Acoustics of Ceremony

Levels and Events

12/13The last Promenade

Traudl Jung: The Will

Joseph Goebbels: The Family

Adolf Hitler: The Terminal

Hans Krebs: The Doctor Bodewin Keitel: The Doctor

Magda Goebbels: The Family Albert Speer: The Traitor

Eva Braum: The Wife Heinrich Himmler: The Traitor

Characters and Roles

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The Fuhrerbunker

From the day the first bombs felt in central Berlin, Adolf Hitler was a dead man. His war was lost and, whether he acknowledged it or not, there was not

much more one could do. He was a terminal patient, each meeting with the ‘doctors’ would only reassure the unavoidable truth. As the future lifeless body that he would be, the Fuhrer was buried with his ‘closest

relatives’ - his dog, his wife, and a bunch of SS officers - for a 10 day journey between life and death.

On April 30 of 1945, the cadaver shot itself.

Descending into the Fuhrerbunker, as well as the posthumous rise from it, is an architectonic inversion of the funeral: The people who greet the

body for one final time, the last supper, the moment where truth is confessed by traitors, the writing

of the will and all other ceremonies happen while below ground, in an abstract space, detached

from weather, natural light or any sense of day and night. Only once the body is completely lifeless, it is brought again to the city level in order to be burned.

The burial happens as an upward motion.

Hitler shoots himself, his wife takes a cyanide

capsule. The ceremony is over and the curtain closed. The officers carry the corpses throughout the bunker - the room, the hallway, the stairs - an honour-less parade. The fire is not spiritual in any sense. It is actually a response to fear, namely the

fear of being hanged public plaza as Mussolini was. Fire is the ultimate instrument for erasing memory and

evidence, The führer’s fading body contrasts with the almost indestructible walls of the bunker. People

fade, architecture remains.

Project 01 -Awareness of The GroundThe design of ‘a simple space’ intended to explore the site as an abstract space. Following the study of several spacialities by other architects that explored above all issues of light shadow, students were put in contact with a project which - by its lack of programmatic requirements - enabled the proposal of more experimental spaces. Propositions took in account seasons, wind, light and other conditions of the site. The space to be worked and its situation in the cemetery were considered decisions of equal importance.

After a series of three iterations, one of the spaces was further developed in concept and materiality.

Awareness of the ground was the main objective in all proposed spaces - following previous discoveries in the site. The cemetery as a section which is not often perceived was worked out by means of negative space, abstraction and reflection.

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Iteration 1: The SpiralThe spiral makes an enclosure of a boundary, never quite closing itself, but becoming gradually detached from the outer environment, at least horizontally. An

abstract space for meditation replaces the site where one of the chapels used to stand.

At its ‘center’, wind is not felt, graves are not seem. A tree is growing inside it but it escapes the spiral through a hole in the wall. The user is isolated, there’s a bench,

one feels in solitude.Just as the cemetery, time is only perceived in a vertical

relationship.

Facade 1:100

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Iteration 2: WaterfallThe waterfall, as all other iterations, tries to create a

filter: a further enclosure inside the cemetery, that allows (even intensifies) some senses to be perceived while

blocking others. By means of a narrow and tall corridor and a steel plate ceiling, this shelter aims to intensify the vertical

relationships of the site, the rain and its acoustics. The canopy channels its waters to a single line in the middle

of the corridor. When it rains, a water curtain falls, stopping the passage - weather and circulation become one. As the corridor presents a rather dark atmosphere, the water shaft is embedded with light. The shelter from the storm is at the same time a protection from water

and an acoustic madness.

Facade 1:100

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Iteration 3: Reverse FuneralThe space aims to bring a reflection on the section - and

its relationship with time - of the site.A vertical cemetery of horizontal trees is reflected on a water mirror, up becomes down and a ‘hole’ on the ground enables a representation of the buried ones to be seen. Older people are deeper, as older trees are in

taller parts of the structure. By means of reflection, the enclosure doubles its relative height, a space of deep vertical perspective is achieved. Horizontal trees set a new reference plane in the space,

perpendicular to that of the original site.A vertical light shaft is filtered by the trees, producing

shadows on the wall.

Facade 1:100

Model 1:20

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Trunks Rotting and Light Through Holes

Framing Context

Students were faced with a clear program - a center for the friends of the cemetery institution. The space should be divided into three facilities: A private study, a kiosk and a lecture hall. Uses incorporated both aspects of preservation and reinvention of the site - how could a project take a stand on it?

Aspects previously studied were reviewed to find a solution. The framing of context by boundary walls, the detachment provided by underground levels, The cemetery most likely future of oblivion. Reinvention was taken as the reality to be contemplated in the proposal. But, if the main users of the building are a group of people whose interest in preservation is more than clear, should a proposal contrast with the clients wishes?

By taking a controversial position, the project had to deal with issues of hierarchy and circulation, leading to complex links between spaces of opposed intentions. Beckett Park and Theater became a built essay on the forces presents within the side.

Beckett StreetPark And Theater

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Site Plan and Building

Thinking Outside the SquareBeckett St Cemetery Theater is placed according to key visuals and perspectives. Connecting the square with its context become key for the new uses of the site as its reason for enclosure - the need for a spiritual, abstract environment - is progressively forgotten.The path in which the center is placed becomes an axis of connection - visually and programatically, between the site and its surroundings. A kind reduced masterplan for the placement of new infrastructures. The floor is tinted yellow, a playful subversion of the past.The means through which the center further frames its views, and through which the path is embraced by the building was studied tin a series of models.

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Studies in Path and ProgramThree different organizations were made taking the

series of spaces and their respective areas.

1The path is completely blocked of vision by the building,

as one crosses the building views disappear. The program is divided in occasional and permanent uses, the hall - divided into an auditorium and a ‘free space’ - is placed in a separate block from the kiosk and the

study, in acoustic isolation.2

The study is set apart from the rest - preservation and reinvention become separated. The auditorium

ends in the kiosk, suggesting a space that could play different roles during day and night shifts. A contrast in materiality is imagined between block one and two. The path defines a vertical frame of the chimney in

the background. The auditorium as a stand opens the possibility for an observation platform - at level with the

wall - a new perspective towards the context.3

The auditorium becomes central - roof for the study, stands for the kiosk, circulation leading to the

observation spaces and the rest of the hall. The kiosk becomes a stage during the night (complex furniture

changes are demanded) making the center into a species of theater. Under the ‘spaces of reinvention’, the kiosk is hidden, visually connected, but with a circulation

and access of its own.

The idea of a new datum - leading to different perceptions of both the cemetery and its context - the complex relationships involving circulation and the new suggested program, one that explores an unexisting

shift of the site, make for a decision. A second model - exploring issues of height, sun, and levels - was

developed.

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Study in Volumetric Program1:100

A Changing LandscapeAs the tombstones fall, programs merge. What once was solid cemetery is now on its way toward becoming a solid park. Infrastructures for the new use are implanted, each new addition pushing the older program into a conflict with the new.At some point, park and cemetery find balance. Children enjoy being in a space which used to be scary, remaining users of the cemetery learn to deal with an environment which appears to be ever more playful and less gloomy.Change is embraced as a process.

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Ground Floor1:50

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First Floor1:50

Cross Section1:50

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Section Axonometric

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The Promenades:ArtistsPublicCenter Custodian

Public Spaces:1. Kiosk/Theatre2.3.Stands/Gallery4.Observation Deck 15.Closed Observation space6. Refreshments Bar7.Mezzanine8.Observation Deck 29.ToiletPrivate Spaces:10.Kitchen11.Library12.Office

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Theatre and KioskFurniture

Miesian SteelFocus on the Light

TimberDefine Promenades

Yellow Corrugated MetalDetachment of the Box

Barbican ConcreteAbsorption by the Site

Materials and Objectives

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The StudyOpposed from the average intention of the center - the reinvention and

reprogramming of the site into a useful park for the area - this space has its focus on the past. With most of its area standing under the stands of the main core and an individual access, the study presents itself separated from the overall course of the building. Perforations in the structural beans of the stands frame the feet of the

public, filtering information. At the study, under the actual program, the past remains, secondary, but present.

The KioskA new facility for the park, the kiosk embraces the need of both fading and growing uses. Selling books, flowers, refreshments and snacks, it capitalizes on both: what was and what will be the square. The space is enclosed by a series of shelves, its

openings are directed toward the outside path.

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The TheaterThrough the shift of shelves and the enclosure of a curtain, some spaces are united, some are broken down. What was a kiosk becomes a stage, scenery drops from the fly-tower. The curtain makes a distinction between stands and circulation, the rest of

the building is kept in regular use.The stage is observed three times during the promenade, from the path (through

shelves) at the stands, finally from the fly-tower, in a downward perspective. It is also visible from the private study - framed by the circular holes of the I beam. Te central

space of the script is reinforced by its connections.

A New DatumAs the new building is populated with viewing platforms at different levels and positions new interactions are Enabled. The movement through the center becomes analogue to a walk among the cemetery. Being at height with the branches of the trees immerses the user in another environment, one that is radically different with seasons. Leaves grow and block perspectives, leaves fall and the field of vision is maximized.The wall looses its strength as a clear boundary. From the outside, the fly-tower signals the park.

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Documents

Death in Leeds