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5/23/2017 Offramp | Long Span

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[Left] Ground plan and elevation drawing of Carlo Fontana’ Coloeum church in the ruin of the amphitheater [1725]. [Right] ngravingof the Coloeum from Richard Deacon’ Flora of the Coloeum [1855].

Conider two depiction of the Coloeum in Rome that were produced a little more than a centurapart. Firt i the plan drawing of Carlo Fontana’ 1725 project for the erection of a church on the arenaof the Coloeum amphitheater, which turn the oval organization of the exiting plan into acentralized uilding arranged around circular paage. Second i nglih otanit Richard Deacon’Flora of the Coloeum from 1855, which record 420 pecie of plant growing in the ruin tate of theColoeum, ome of which were rare pecie whoe eed were primaril tranported to the ite theanimal and lave rought from Aia and Africa for the cit’ numerou pectacle. When poitionednext to one another, thee two depiction of the Coloeum put forward an important coupling of twodi�erent dimenion of architectural longevit (Figure-1). Firt, a illutrated the Fontana plan, ithe expanded life-pan of a particular uilding after it original ue and it inherent capacit for�exiilit depite programmatic oolecence. Second i the idea of material long-pan, whichcomplicate the delicate relationhip etween natural and man-made tem within an elongatedtemporalit a preented Deacon’ plant inventor.

Given our contemporar environmental, political and economic intailitie, a dicuion on thearchitectural long-pan might eem to point toward alread exhauted undertaking in our �eld:foregoing the architectural oject altogether for the ake of ultimate �exiilit and ephemeralit,foregrounding the idea of performance for a “realit” miion, or declaring the ole permanence of thearchitectural oject with a relative upenion from quetion of temporalit. If we have alread cometo realize the dead-end qualit of thee dicuion and their derivative, then another quetionfollow: What if our oject, geographie, and geologie cannot e neatl categorized a �exile orephemeral ut intead are in dire need to e reimagined in their expanded temporal and patial long-pan, i.e. in their unfamiliar permanence?

“To call human eing geological agent,” a hitorian Dipeh Chakraart argue, “i to cale up ourimagination of the human.” A the “the ditinction etween human and natural hitorie—much of

which had een preerved even in environmental hitorie that aw the two entitie in interaction—ha egun to collape,” Chakraart write, “it i no longer a quetion of impl of man having aninteractive relation with nature,” ut intead, a human operating a a “force of nature in the

Neran Turan

Long Span

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geological ene.” From Timoth Morton’ “hperoject,” which depict environment a a

compilation of immene oject—uch a the poltrene cup that will till e around after 500 ear—vatl ditriuted in time and pace relative to human, to hitorian Jo Guldi and David Armitage’critique of hort-termim and call for a new conception of longue-durée in their ook Hitor Manifeto,an intellectual hift of elongation i evident in the �eld of hitor and eco-criticim. One unifingthread within thi hift i the return to and reinterpretation of permanence.

SOTSP: Six oject hown together. Courte of NMSTUDIO.

SOTSP: Diagram of uilding plan tpologie. Courte of NMSTUDIO.

Two of our recent project at NMSTUDIO tackle the quetion of long-pan through the frameworkillutrated in the two Coloeum example decried aove. Our SOTSP (Six Oject with Thirt-SixPlan) project engage with the quetion of permanence with a particular focu on �exiilit (Figure2). It conit of ix medium-cale uilding propoal, which invetigate the idea of �exiilit throughthe variation of certain plan tpologie (uch a the en�lade plan, the multiple corridor plan, thehpotle plan, the open plan, and o on) (Figure 3). While each uilding i compoed of deviationfrom a particular plan tpolog with 6 di�erent iteration, each uilding o�er a particular pectrum of�exiilit depite perceived a a permanent tructure. Rather than aociating �exiilit directl withephemeralit or with the diolution of the oject, SOTSP repoition architectural �exiilit a atpological prolem of elongated permanence.

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SOTSP: Oject-1. Courte of NMSTUDIO.



For intance, an en�lade plan on the ground level turn into an open plan on the top level with theOject-1 of SOTSP (Figure 4). With Oject-2, the uilding ha an open plan on the top ut tranitioninto hpotle column on the ground level with poche pace (Figure 5). And, with Oject 4, thinelongated heer wall on the top level tranition into haitale wider pace on the ground level(Figure 6). In Oject-4, the poche pace get wide enough to accommodate program uch a micro-unit and necear uilding infratructure in the cae of a hared living program on the lower leveland turn into elongated heer wall on the upper level while accommodating torage and utilitpace for a poile co-work pace (Figure 7-11). In the end, through a focu on the mot familiararchitectural notion of the “tpical plan,” the SOTSP project quetion inherent �exiilitie in variouplan tpologie.





SOTSP: Oject-4, Floor-2 detailed plan howing a hared living pace with micro-unit. Courte of NMSTUDIO.

SOTSP: Oject-4, Floor-5 detailed plan howing a hared working pace. Courte of NMSTUDIO.



SOTSP: Oject-4, ection. Courte of NMSTUDIO.

Our NIN ISLANDS project, on the other hand, addree the quetion of long-pan from a materialtandpoint. From the formation of variou raw material and their extraction from a peci�c

geographic location, to their proceing, tranportation, and contruction into a deired �nihed e�ectin the uilding, and �nall to their demolition, wate, and decompoition, the project argue that thepatial and temporal pan of architecture i wide (geographic pace) and deep (geological time). Theproject propoe an archipelago of nine iland, repreented through a erie of axonometric drawing.ach iland explore a particular lavih uilding material (certain tpe of leather, marle, wood, gla,travertine, gold, aluminum, limetone, or granite, etc.) with the upper part coniting of anarchetpical uilding form. A an oppoition to the upper part, the lower part of each iland conit ofa formle landma from which the raw matter i extracted (quarr for the marle, tree for the wood,cow for the leather, and o on). (Figure 12-14).

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NIN ISLANDS: Iland of the elgian Cow. Courte of NMSTUDIO.

NIN ISLANDS: Iland of the lue ahia Granite. Courte of NMSTUDIO.

The juxtapoition of the �nihed urface of tpologicall impli�ed monument at the top with thevulgar formlene of the naked landmae elow work through two regiter. Firt, the collape ofthe �nihed and the raw aim to call attention to the under-conceptualized pace in etween. Second, upending the archetpical time of architecture and the low time of geolog in the ojective paceof the axonometric, the project preent the “revere oolecence” of each iland a a reource ruin.



NIN ISLANDS: Iland of Travertine. Courte of NMSTUDIO.

Aiming to couple inquirie on matter and �exiilit in architecture with their eemingl oppoingcounterpart of permanence, thee project point to alternative long-pan and their derivativearchitectural peci�citie.

The author would like to acknowledge and thank kin Arar, Soo Han, and Alex Spatzier (SOTSP), and toDavid Richmond and Patrick Daurio (Nine Iland) for all their help with the two project.

1. Dipeh Chakraart, “The Climate of Hitor: Four Thee,” Critical Inquir 35 (2009), 206. ↩2. Iid, 207. ↩3. Timoth Morton, cological Thought (Camridge, Ma.: Harvard Univerit Pre, 2010), 130–31.

Jo Guldi and David Armitage, Hitor Manifeto (Camridge Univerit Pre, 2014). ↩4. For more on thi project, ee Neran Turan, “Nine Iland: Matter Around Architecture,” New Geographie 08:

Iland, ed. Daniel Daou and Palo Pérez-Ramo (Camridge, Ma.: Harvard Univerit Graduate School ofDeign), forthcoming. ↩

Neran Turan i an architect and a partner at NMSTUDIO. She i currentl an aitant profeorat the Department of Architecture at the Univerit of California-erkele. efore UC erkele, Neranwa an aitant profeor at Rice Univerit' School of Architecture. Her work draw on therelationhip etween geograph and deign to highlight their interaction for new aethetic andpolitical trajectorie within architecture and uranim. She hold a Doctor of Deign from HarvardUniverit Graduate School of Deign (GSD), a Mater of nvironmental Deign from Yale UniveritSchool of Architecture, and a achelor of Architecture from Itanul Technical Univerit. Neran ifounding chief-editor of the Harvard GSD journal New Geographie, which focue on contemporariue of uranim and architecture, and i the editor-in-chief of the �rt two volume of the journal:New Geographie 0 (2008) and New Geographie: After Zero (2009). Some of her recent writing haveeen pulihed in Climate: Architecture and the Planetar Imaginar, ARPA Journal, SAN ROCCO,Scenario Journal, MAS Context, Condition, MONU, ThinkSpace, Arqa, idoun, Threhold, and 20/20:ditorial Take on Architectural Dicoure.

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