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Dipl.Ing.Giulia Tubelli TU Berlin
Genoa 4.11.83 [email protected]://issuu.com/giuliettatubellipietropaoli0039.3280670736
FREELANCE
TEXTS
1. Marie von blanche2. Casa
R E S E A R C H
3. Asoziatti Progetti Internazzionalli4. Golden Acropolis5. The story of Mr.K. and Mr.B.6. Learning from Cities
PROFESSIONALEXPERIENCES
7.Studio Raumtaktik, Berlin8.Studio Daniel Libeskind ,Milan9.Studio 5+1AA ,Genoa
13.Interrogating Pop in Architecture14.Diaologos - The Story of Mr. K and Mr. B 15. What is that? - Marie von Blanche
BOOKS10. Masterplan Palermo11. OGR Officine Grandi Riparazioni12. The Story of Mr. K and Mr. B
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TRAVETTOLONGITUDINALE
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1.HOUSE
MARIE VON BLANCHE
Category Won Competition Location Tarragona,TurinBuilding Area 25 sqm (net floor area)Building Details transportable units Completion Date June 2011 Partecipation Giulia Tubelli, Stefano BoccardoExhibition Architectural Festival Tarragona and Turin
Project Description
Our Prototype propose a working/living solution for contemporary architects and artists. In order to provide a place wich combine their home with the necessity of mobility.It is based on a flexible aluminium structure and a foldable wooden skin.
FREELANCE
Category
Location
Building Area
Partecipation
Completion
Client
One family house
Cavia,Alassio(SV) Italy
250 sqm (net floor area)
Giulia Tubelli
november 2011
Private Client
Project Description
Is one family house, facing the see on top a green hill in liguria The house is realized with a narrow budget, it works with the archetypal schape of traditional italian house and find in small and cheep details a singular architectural language.
2.CASA
FREELANCE
+ 293.36 m + 293.37 m
+ 296.68 m
+ 299.36 mpiano sottotetto
+ 296.36 mpiano terra
-290,36 mpiano interrato
Fernseh Turm
Schatz House
Museo Arte Moderna
Autogrill
ExhibitionAkademie SchlossSolitude,
StuttgartResidential Building
Tv Tower,Museum,Autogrill,Conference table
January 2009 Akademie der solitude
Giulia Tubelli,Iassen Markov
Category Location Exhibition Details
Completion Fellowship Partecipation
Project Description
Iassen Markov und Giulia Tubelli present their imaginary architecture office:Assozziatti Progetti Internazzionali. Installations, Models und Projections will show the actual projects of the office.4 special pieces :SchatzHaus,FernsehTurm,Autogrill and Museo d’arte contemporanea. Beside of that will be showned a desk for the conference witch will take place in Akademie der Solitude.
3.ASOZIATTI
PROGETTIINTERNAZZIONALLI
R E S E A R C H PROJECTS
Category Location Starting Date Partecipation
PubblicationBerlin nord Bahnof
2008Giulia Tubelli, Marta Onofre
Project Description
The Golden Acropolis is a Tragic and emotive architecture wich tells a story about images and perceptions, is spiritual place wich alloud any religion.The sacrality within the projcect infact is not provided from any God (maybe fromeveryone), but from the space.
4.
GOLDEN ACROPOLIS
R E S E A R C H PROJECTS
T h e M i l l
T h e T r e l l i s
T h e C a r a v a g g i o
T h e D r e s s
Project Description
This is the Story of Mr.K and Mr.B one is a young,staid architect who just finished his studies, the other is a cultured,extravagant,rich and immaginative client,who needed architecture.They have to find a way to converse.The client will give to the architect enough material in order for him to understand his wishes...
Master Thesis T.U BerlinProf Stollman/Bartoli
various immaginary places
10.000 sqm (net floor area)
Private Residential BuildingPrivate Factory
Office and Mill buildingVertical Garden
June to October ‘10Giulia Tubelli
DAAD
Category
Location
Building Area Other Building Details
Starting Date Partecipation Fellowship
5.THE STORY OF MR.K. AND MR.B.
R E S E A R C H PROJECTS
R E S E A R C H PROJECTS
Exhibition,Learning from citiesBiennale Venezia
Masterplan Berlin
September 2006
Giulia Tubelli,Alessandro Perotta, Valeria Iberto,Gosplan.
Category Location Exhibition Details
Completion Partecipation
Project Description
Berlin with its history, all the violence it has seen, it’s greatness, its forgetfulness ,its fragility, its fragmented monumentality represent Europe’s infancy and adolescence.The response of an ethical-romantic Urbanism Project implies the importance and the processes of history and specific historical and social identity of a place.
6.LEARNING FROM CITIES
lager
kohlehaufen, liegend
videoscreen h= 1,5m
pyramidenteile
videoscreen
graft, haus, 6 m
united bottlewand aus flaschen, stehend
solarnext
lounge
glaszylinder
enotions
fassadenmodule h= 4m
bierkasten, h= 2,5m
panorama hwkn h =1,6 m
holzstamm h= 2 m
panorama chris barlieb, h= 1,6 m
fassadenelement, h=4m
fassadenelement, h=4m
technical paradise
kataloge
strahler 67 kw
autolautsprecher, h= 6 m
puzzle aus pappscheiben h= 3 m
strauß aus glühbirnenh= 6m
November 08 - Septeber 09Assitent Architect at Studio RaumtaktikBerlin
Exhibition Venice Biennale
German pavillon Venice, Italy
2008
Deutsche Ministerium
Category
Location Completion
Client
7.UPDATIN(G)ERMANY
Project Description
Updating Germany – Projects for a Better Future is the German contribution to the 11th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale 2008. The studio Raumtaktik is presenting 20 projects from architects, designers, engineers and artists – steps both large and small toward a better future.
PROFESSIONALEXPERIENCES
LocationScheduled Completion Building AreaCategory
Client Role
Milano, Italy2014
3.109.467 sq ft Fase esecutiva,
direzione artistica cantiere.CityLife srl
junior architect
8a.CITYLIFE
RESIDENCIAL BUILDINGS
January 10 - April 11 Architect at Studio Daniel Libeskind Milan
LocationOther Building Details
ClientRole
Calabria, Italy
Control center Tot. 14.984 sqmParking areas 15.350 sqm
Public event space 10.000 sqmcommercial center,Hotel and Convention Center,Museum
Stretto di Messinajunior architect
8b.MESSINA STRAIT BRIDGE,CONNECTED
WORKS
Areal rail BolzanoBolzano Italy
Residential Buildings,Service Industry Buildings ,Office Buildings
Commercial Buildings,Public Buildings Station,Museum,Hotel ,
Educational buildings
Competition Location Requested Building
8c.COMPETITION
ARBO
Location Building AreaCategory
Building Details
ClientStarting DateRole
Brescia,Italy88610sqm(net floor area)
Piano Integrato di intervento PII,Fase deifinitiva edifici
Private Residential Buildings – Service Industry Buildings – Office Buildings
-Commercial Buildings -Public Buildings Nuovi Assetti Urbani S.p.a.
March 2006junior architect
8d.SAN NAZZARO,
NAU NUOVI ASSETTI URBANI
PROFESSIONALEXPERIENCES
Location
Building Area
Starting DateCategory Role
9a.GREEN RIVER SHANGAI
Shangai,China
tot plot a 44000 mqresidence 37000mq
service 7000mq
tot plot b 27500 mq service apartment
23300 mq commercial
4000 mqdecember 2012
invited competitionproject responsible
June 11- presentArchitect at Studio 5+1AA Genoa
LocationBuilding AreaCategory Building Details
Client ParticipantsRole
9d.INTERNATIONAL STATION SUSA TURIN
9b.HOSPITAL MONZA
Location Building AreaCategory
Building Details
ClientCompletion DateRole
Location
Category
Building Details
ClientStarting DateRole
9c.EX COMPARTO DRACO AREA
Brescia, Italia41,000 mq (net floor area)Execution planning phase
Private Residential BuildingPrivate Factory
Regolo s.r.l.2013
Project Architect
Monza Italia
Competition
Existing Hospital riqualifaction and new building
ImpregiloJanuary 2012
Project Architect
Suse, Italie10.100 m2
competition 2012 , 2nd
international exchance High Velocity Train (TAV)
Station
LTF5+1AA with GMP
Project Architect
PROFESSIONALEXPERIENCES
10.Masterplan PalermoPubblication Research with 5+1AA
11.OGR Officine Grandi RiparazioniPubblication with 5+1AA
Description: n 3 booklets (green - white- red)Pages: 32 pages Size: 7.5 x 10 inches (19 x 25 cm)Cover Style: Soft leather Cover
Description: n 2 booksPages: 110Size: 27 x 21 cm)Cover Style: Hard Cover
BOOKS
12.The Story of Mr. K and Mr. B : DiaologosMaster Thesis TU Belin
Description: bookPages: 128Size: 39,5 x 25,8 cm)Cover Style: Hard Cover + Cd pocket
POP-cropoli/Berlin // spirituality is what you need!
PART THE FIRST / PRELUDE(S)
PRELUDE 1: THE STORY
Here is our story. Before we start - be warned! For it is a story mostly about POP, but also about other things, too. And, you must know that our first impulse concerning POP was to use it to explore the relationship between architecture and religion. After all, what is more POPular in all the history of the world than religion?
IMAGES A,B,C
Early on, we understood that all of our questions had to do with some element of the “eternal.” And, that we needed a place, a physical and contemporary site to generate this exploration. Berlin, as one of the few really international European cities, struck us as perfect for this purpose.
Nevertheless, we are sensitive to the fact that this theme is complicated, démodé, and perhaps even dangerous. So we needed something more powerful and contemporary, something that, like religion, deals with the wishes,desires and fears of the people. Also, it needed to be a business.
This was our strategy: to create a holy-POP layer, and cynic-POP one.
dreams and nightmares mixed together money joining spirituality
PRELUDE 2: WISHES
We see architecture as constructed emotional spaces. We are also interested in spirituality; this is our content, and it is the theme that architecture and religion have in common. Spiritual places are not necessarily religious, nor must they deal with a specific religion. Rather, for us, “holy,” refers to places where you can feel something that your eyes can not see; they generate a precious quality, which is always, immediately, silently, close to the people.
So our story is about the images and perceptions that architecture is able to create, and then, it is an attempt to “reload”, “rework”, and “reintegrate” all these images, into one organic whole that is our project.
For example, what happens if you collage together core elements from architecture’s spritual ur-references as a Greek temple, a Terragni architecture, the ruins of Villa Adriana, the architecture of Scharoun and Barragan, etc.? In this way, we attempted to investigate the dimension of the spaces, utilizing the proportions from existing architecture in an attempt to understand the way that buildings work in relation to the built city the people that live in them. This was the device which created the aim of our project.
PRELUDE 3: POP {process A}
fears and wishes.POP-architecture must be close to the people. Thus, we named our project POP because it uses a strategy very similar to the one that the brands use, which plays with the fears and wishes of the people to make them need to use the architecture.
sentimental tragedy.We can not offer an objective view of architecture, but rather a sentimental and tragic one. We do not brand ourselves but instead create a brand tunde to the needs of the city and its citizens. We aim to create a specific and “eradicated,” space open to all possibilities but nested in the past.
Thus it is critical to search all the images in the memories of the people, to create a background of visual POP memories! And, because it is impossible to do this in a subjective way, we can only become openly, perfectly, and extremely personal, using cut-and-past to create our POP architecture in the same way the POP art creates its productions.
IMAGES D, E, F, G
research.Our research is oriented toward comparing architecture and religion. As we know, these two categories run a parallel path of confusion and often share imprecise instruments of representation. Therefore it is not our goal to answer to all our questions but only to explore them with the instrument of architecture
shortcut.What happens when one mixes up a romantic/personal view of architecture with a cynical/commercial point of view? with a strategy that mixed the same intentions to bring people to use and get close to the architecture, but for a different basic reason ,that deal only with the money and the commercial aspect of the work of the architect.
the holy and the profane in matromony joined
typology {rules of style}.We will not try to imitate a typology or to create our own new typology. We will not try to impose too many choices, nor will we try to justify our choices.1 We will try to re-elaborate the story of the images in our minds. We will allow the personal, involuntary elements of the design process their fair due, ie, what we are will be our architecture.2
typology {rules of image}.We will allow our architecture create an image or images because architecture (nearly always) has something that have to do with the eyes.We will allow all the images created to be juxtaposed with an incredible amount of things that you have seen and felt and which maybe you also(want to?) forget.
PRELUDE 4: POP {process B}
acropolis reloaded.We have taken the Acropolis hostage. But do not be afraid. We will only use it as our symbol of the memories the collective society. It is an example of power and beauty. And, it is a place where all the common knowledge and wishes of the people can became real. It is the strongest possible reference for the city and the people. It is a common place, created by people to channel the god(s). It is a place which represents culture, and in which the people are safe.
Our intention is to translate and reload the major elements of the Acropolis. But not in a didactic way. Freud speaks about the power of Acropolis as a place resonant of the accumulations of history. We all know it as a place so immediately recognizable that when you really visit it is hard to understand that is a real place. Because instead, you only feel guilt that your life is so short.
13.Interrogating Pop in ArchitecturePop-Cropolis, with Marta OnofreEditor: Daniela Konrad, Jason DanzigerErnst Wasmuth Verlag Tübingen, Berlin 2008
And of course, the Acropolis is also a good example of a place where different uses of buildings (program) are integrated. Not only this, but it also is dedicated to a series of different divinities. Thus, it is an excellent mixture. A hybrid symbolic city, the classic example of form and function. Yet, it also works as a building, set in the contemporary city, a lived-in monument on a hill of caves, following its own rules, internal relations and timeless context; all while sitting in the steamy city of Athens, filled with new communal memory-seeking tourists... ritual.We are interested in rituals. They create the possibility to deepen the relationship between people, buildings, and city. But, we ask ourselves: is a place of repeating rituals, the only place where one can make rituals? Must we build rituals...?
context.We use three parameters to relate our project with the context of Berlin and POP. The first is part of the process and is more theoretical and literary, while the other two deal with the scale and the proportions of the project.
We have learned that in order to relate to the people, architecture must function in relation with the human body. And, we know that the contemporary human body does not have the same proportions as Leonardo’s or even Corbu’s man. This due to the fact that the perception of the world has changed since the time of our masters. The contemporary human being regularly augments his or her reality, using machines which have transformed our perception.
Therefore we are forced to re-explore the question of proportions, both classical classic proportions as well as modern classic proportions. ONLY In this way we can re-inforce Architectures’ control over the perception of the people. ONLY in this way can we give our contemporaries the fear and sense of power, the sense of the very big, the sense of familiarity and home, of scale and which today’s ritual demand.
Thus, the project must re-invent even the concept of proportion. We can use no existing rules. Instead, we must imagine it in our mind and in our drawings. Yet, we demand proportion because we understand that it is the only way to connect the body to the building and the building to the city. When this connection is made, one can read the the city within the smallest detail of the building.
history is dead! long live history!Our history is a trip through architecture. It is a non linear trip with great confusion, and juxtapositions and movement. But anyway, who cares what the time is? What is important for us is the now/time in which we live and in which we perceive.
PART THE SECOND / HALLUCINATION(S)
HALLUCINATION 1: PATHS
Where are we? Maybe in Athens maybe Agrigento, is not so important, what is important is what is waiting for us. Does the path rise, to infect at the top of this arrogant and austere hill? It seems there is a Temple and maybe something more than this. Let’s go to the city of religions which, with her high will, is sure to bring us closer to God. The path defines the landscape and our arrival to the building; the distances within the buildings are in step with us, directly defining our perceptions about them.
IMAGES 1,1A
focus.First we examine the path of perception in the landscape. We query the exact position of the aggregate of buildings, and of the buildings between each other. We explore the symbology of styling, perspectives’ tricky tricks, the proportions which are offered between architecture and human.
HALLUCINATION 2: LIGHTS
A city appears which is defined only by light. In this city, space is the result only of the intensity and placement of lights. Gleaming and shining lights glitter all around me, a multitude of lights, little artificial stars framing big natural voids. You have seen this before, in a mosque, in an old cistern, in church, or in the last Alvar Alto building visited. What is important in this lucopolis is not where you are but rather what your experience of the space is. You must allow the light to guide us through the space and endow us with spiritual and holy atmosphere.
IMAGES 2,3,4,5
focus.Transformation and richness of the space, efficient use of the architectural instrument of light.Architecture as filter of light.Atmosphere as the creation of architecture.
HALLUCINATION 3: STRATIFYING
IMAGE 6
The city stratifies the eternal. Ancient and contemporary in the same time, it is critical that we observe these hybrid conditions with care. The stratified city exists today as it has always existed. It is made of remembering and things that we already seen, of an architecture of déjà vu.
stratum {a}.The first image of this city,which can be an Italian city, is an image of sophisticated residential buildings in a luxury district, defined by elegant shapes and facades. The facade is a thin blade, stuck to above the entrance. It reveals a symmetrical cut, in which a stair is located. Within the blade, a thin gauge window tries to dissapear within the façade its self. A ramp, suspended, white, in the middle of the empty basement, bring you upstairs and and distributes you to the flats above.
IMAGES 7,8
focus.To rework of the classical elements of architecture (base, window, entrance, cornice...).To rework of the concept of italian palazzo. To understand the construction of style.
stratum {b}.The second image is of a city or villa. The space created is one which examines the position of the major elements which arrange the composition. The path is free and fluctuating; the atmosphere is stuck in the time of eternity. The materiality of the different elements are massive and eternal at the same time, as in the view from the command center of a dream. IMAGES 9,9a,10,11,11A
TEXTS
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focus.To explore the anthropic qualities of natureTo explore the positioning of elements.To understand how voids create place.
stratum {c}.The buildings are placed as though they are big stones sitting along the street. They fight to stop time, to remember the past and and still go straight to the future. They try to define clearly the space and while still leaving space for the future stratification grow. They are lines, defining the a progressive inlet into their own interiors, where space dilates with an amazing play of the section from outside to inside. A membrane not a wall.
IMAGES 12,13,14
focus.To rework of the classical themes of architecture.To reload the classical tools of architecture. To precisely define the entrance of a building and the path inside of it.
stratum {d}.A huge stair lands here, where stratified cities meet and mix with one another. Different layers communicate and remember one another as old friends at the bar. They are all different from each other yet they resembling each other like cousins with a shared history. The statues keep it all together. They live on a different level, literally, guiding the visitor and symbolizing outdated notions of beauty and power. Though we all know that the place can not live without them.
IMAGES 15,16,17,18
focus.To integrate the power of the symbols to manage the history of the city.To enable memories and collective growth.
HALLUCINATION 3: MEMORIES AND RUINS
The city is completely deserted. The buildings are abandoned. If you consider ruins besides nature, inevitably they add something which no longer belongs to history. Here, time is pure. It is not burdened with history. Yet, only the fellow who carefully observes the ruins can take consciousness understanding the meaning within.
IMAGES 19,20,21,22
focus.To understand the power of architecture to create history and territory.
EPILOGUE
Our journey is not finished and never will be. As in a process of creation of POP art, in a personal way, we analyzed all the images of our banal history to reuse them in the architecture. For us, POP means POPular. Maybe what is today POPular is create and consumed with extreme velocity. Anyway what is POPular is related to a catalogue of images and elements which are part of the collectivity and which likely do not come from POPular culture.
We believe that the truly POPular can only come from the slow and complex assimilation of concepts embedded in our minds.
TEXTS
Dia-logos through the argument
Chapter 1 : glossary
A about the sublime and architectureK."If I were to make a wish, being in the position to do so, I’d almost say the architecture we’re referring to should represent a mixed pleasure of agreement and disagreement, a battle between pain, nature and spontaneity, a fusion of sense and sensibility.”B.“You’re talking about abstracts Mr. K maybe you don’t know architecture is made of bricks and mortar?”
B about tangibility and its meaningK."On this matter I cannot deny you’re right, but I’m not an expert on bricks and mortar, I’m just an onlooker who enjoys the space around me, I’m thus concerned with highlighting the importance of irrational forces such as feelings and emotions that hopefully will be transmitted through cement itself, through stone.”
C about Assessing to art through psychoanalytical thoughtB."If I got it right, you’d want me to deal with your unsettled desires in order to make them come true" K."Dear Mr. B, would you think that’s such a weird request? Isn’t the artist, the architect or the poet, throughout these conflicts, the one able to realize desires, first as the creator, and later on as the listener and the viewer?"
D about libido in architectureB."your wish, if I’m not wrong, is it for therapy, I mean art, to connect desire and reality, to express unconscious concepts making them milder, hiding their origins and giving pleasure?"
K. “well , certainly ,architecture should serve something, produce impulses”“You’re asking me to investigate secret places, witch are invisible, personal and not jet discovered!”
E about unheimlich and architectureK."Exactly, I wish you could represent those things witch are invisible and inexplicable, scary and fascinating, unknown and familiar, archetypical and enigmatic"
F about the individual and the collective character of artB.“Mr. K, you’re asking me to dive into my experiences and to deal with my world. How else shall I do it? I can try to become the interpreter of a culture, of a moment, of a tiny spot of the universe, of a past, but our reference are completely different, thus I cannot be objective.”K.“Who asked you so? How would I make you reveal your own identity by asking you to deal with certain matters.”
H2 about WeltanschauungB.“You’re then asking me to give priorities, delete what’s useless, formalize a language, a personal syntax to create a link between these worlds, mine, yours and the collective one?”
K. “I’m asking you to reorganize, to manage and create a configuration arranged by its contents and composition. To take responsibility, to build or rather to represent a reality not fake, not surreal but wild, pure and free, able to represent what your sensibility and intelligence perceive without filters, I just ask you to be generous”this will require to pay particular attention to what is clear and what is invisible in the world, a fine observation of things, conscious and unconscious.”
I2 narrationB.“to do so I should have to focus on shallow things from everyday life, I should narrate about this real world, the visible as well as the invisible one , about this parallel cosmos that joins sensation and objects, I should review everything and be astonished by them in order to make them magic thanks to their normality”
H about aesthetics as research into reconstruction of realityB.“however I have a doubt: even though I do understand your point of view, I wonder how could I represent what you’re asking me without taking the risk for my vision to be a subjective one or subjectively interpreted in spite of being shared?”
K.“This as well is hidden in the very nature of art, if you’ll pay attention to check out every single character of reality, this will be able to produce a plurality of sensations, experiences and sharing, and this is already enough, more than this I will not and I don’t want to ask you”
B."Do you mean that architecture, just like a memory machine, could be able to bring back to conscience old experiences?”
K."yes, and simultaneously, to sum up, it would project towards the future, in order to learn from its own experiences, from its own history, and using always new tools, it would regenerate its self.”
I about art as an act of freedomB.“If architecture could have this strength, this power to tell a history that entails many others, if it were like this, beyond its own being and function it could become free throughout time!”
K. “Can you realize that? if you were able to do this for me, my home would really have a value, a weight, a meaning and it wouldn’t fly away.”
L About time and styleB."So, if I’ll be able to be free time, I’d get rid of style as well, for style being along with tradition is a simplified and univocal representation of an era and unambiguous representation of an era”
K."So we only deal with TODAY. But not without memory of experiences of course, and not without looking at what comes after."
14.The Story of Mr. K and Mr. B : DiaologosMaster Thesis TU Belin Prof. Joerg Stollmann , Sandra Bartoli
M about presence of the pastB.“Exactly, I’ll tell you the truth without looking back at the ones that came before me, I don’t feel like continuing.”
K.“Fine then, let’s get everything!”
N about the need to position ourselves and making a choiceB.“Well no, Mr K., I believe you must make choices, we have to give up some elements if we want to be accurate by sending these messages”
K.“I believe that makes sense.”B. “Excellent, It seams that up until now we may agree on many things, however us architects, as I was telling you, deal with things that are real, physical, formal and functional.”
P about shape and its dangers K.“Let’s talk about Shape!”
B.“Oh Mr K. maybe you ignore it! Shape is illicit! Don’t you know the concept of shape is a very dangerous one?”
K.“Well, we will deal with it, because shape is a meaning in itself, we will deal with morphological aesthetics, shape is something witch doesn’t stand still, it is constantly changing”
B.“I’m telling you, this is a tricky matter!”
K. “Dear Mr. B, I’m not asking you to turn yourself into an over-sensitive beauty or an irrational creative power, I’m asking for your sensitive intuition to go along with an intellectual knowledge and the discovery of technical processes. The concentration of solid materials, and mysterious and creative absence of the spirit.”
G about reality between conscious and unconsciousB.“Fine, I believe this is the way we can deal with it, even though it won’t be easy. However we must understand what meaning we want to give to these shapes”
K.“About this I already have an idea. I’d like for my architecture, the one you’ll design for me, to talk about conscious and unconscious matters, like a dream where you know more or less where you are but you’re not completely conscious.”
B.“You’re then asking me to work between conscious and unconscious, reason and dream, desire and reality?”
K. “Exactly.”
B.“We’ll then we need rules, new ones, different ones…”
K.“Right, rules, well, the first one: FreedomI know that if I were to make you do something, we wouldn’t reach good resultsSecond rule: rules, those rules, must be set by you, choose them, copy them, steal them from the past, mix them up, twist them, it’s up to you.”
B.“fine, but Mr. K, you still haven’t told me what should we design for you? What are you looking for? A church, a theatre, a museum?”
K.“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what I need: I need an object able to interact with conscience and sensorial apparatus, an object that can tell a personal story as well as a common one, it must contrast and be on the same page, it must create a breakthrough, an interval, a pause, be weird but familiar.”
P about function in architecture and shape in movementB.“Mr. K, I’d like to ask you things that in my opinion cannot annul architecture, but who lives in this architectures? How big is it? What do you do inside it?”
K.“Unfortunately it is hard to categorize and what is today a museum, tomorrow it may be turned into a dorm, who is a child today tomorrow will be a grandfather, just like a shell turns into a mountain…”
B.“Fine, then we can say that the more architecture changes the more it faces its immutability, thus we should deal with this?”
K.“Yes, immutability, I believe that’s the point”
B.“Innate?”
K.“Innate seems to me a good definition, after all architecture will always look alike itself.”
B.“If I got it right, we should try to generate primary images able to enrich themselves as well as getting rid of common and individual history, myths of tradition and everyday life?”
K.“Yes and once we reach this point, everything will be communicated like a secret , like something one is not able to tell , but maybe just to see and feel.”
P1 about free image composition
Mr. K gave Mr. B a sort of catalogue, with images, in no particular order, with a title and subtitle for each single image, so that in a sense you could visualize his intentions, his desires about architecture, everything they talked about during their exhausting meetings.
K. “You see? Look! Pay attention though: images represent a Cosmo, a corner of the world, a reality and an atmosphere - a common as well as an individual story. Images visualize meanings, and show many different ones simultaneously, representing two or three dimensions at the same time. What you see in these images is certainly different from what I see, and this is their strength and freedom. You see, here I tried to take short notes about what I believed was relevant, maybe there will be more, with other opinions and points of view; nevertheless there’s also room for them, because just by existing they increase their own profusion - that, in my opinion, is fed by complexity, dispute and contradiction.”
B. “Indeed, I don’t believe we were referring to an unambiguous reality.”
K.“No! That’s why we’ll use images, because they set us free.”
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B.“Well, we will appeal to a visual language and to the strength of meaning that remains manifold and free to be chosen by the viewer. We’ll tell a story, that at the same time holds many others.”
5.32 PM - end of first meeting They said goodbye when it was already dark outside, it had been a very lengthy discussion. Mr. B was deadbeat, sweaty from head to toe after writing down page after page of messy notes and finally decided to head back home with his pile of papers. Mr K was on the other hand very satisfied and not at all tired, on the contrary he was excited and glad. As a means of farewell, he gave Mr B such a strong pat on the back that the other man almost found himself on the ground and then strode off, whistling.
Description of the main characters
Mister B. Mister K.
1_
there was Mr K,he was definitely a peculiar man, wearing a papillon with white pois on a black background, a pocket handkerchief, silver pants and a tiny pink pin. Having waited twenty minutes and for a while now he was asking himself which type of architecture he could commissioned to the young architect he recruited. Supposing he had enough money to build it, supposing the condition to build it were on his favor, supposing it was possible to realize what he wanted, what did he actually want?He commissioned Mr. B because he was young. And hopefully pure. He didn’t wanted a famous and affirmed architect, he needed a young hopeful man, who was able to listen to him because he had big plans. Actually, maybe not too big, but he needed someone who had time, who gave him time, and he was sure about one thing: time was the only instrument able to allow the two of them to understand each other.It had been now days, months he kept asking himself those questions; he was wondering what the buildings had to represent, buildings developed into their exterior image as well as into their function and use; what was their meaning, were they to be just buildings? Just objects to be used?
Or something else? What kind of reaction would they engender inside of the city, from a formal point of view as well as social and narrative? And even now, while waiting, he was thinking, sipping a drink so bitter to be almost too sweet.
2_
Then there was the architect, doubtful and confused: Mr B. Quiet and modest, he had tried to be dressed appropriate for the meeting, having chosed a blue t-shirt with a denim jacket, even though weather was quite warm outside; he had combed his hair that morning. He had just graduated. The architect degree was a scientific career, at least that’s what people had told him: being a responsible and conscientious boy he had always tried to deal with the function, technique and technicality, not loosing himself into frivolous and pointless things. And now he had to look for a job, he had to improve his speed in design, he had to think about a career, he had to produce good ideas and doing it fast, he thought…And besides, he thought that had been built enough things around the world, that maybe it wasn’t necessary to compete for this objective, that maybe it wasn’t necessary to prove your own value being faster and faster, achieving more skills, click, click, click, click, the sound of the mouse. But by then, once he had chose to be an architect, he had to work. That’s what he had studied for and that what he had become: an architect. He put those doubts aside and went to the appointment, sweaty and combed.
That’s how Mr K, in need of building an architecture, and Mr B, in need of a job, met.
It was clear that this client was different, he didn’t say straight from the beginning where and how the building had to be done, he didn’t try to do everything as soon as possible and without many questions; on the contrary he demanded Mr B for long and endless arguments and discussions… it was hard to understand what Mr K really wanted...
Prelude :
15th of March, 13:01:55 how Mr K, in need of building an architecture, and Mr B, in need of a job, met.
Mr K and Mr B decided to meet at a little kiosk, in a street without traffic but very crowded. Mr K parked his car and before entering he stopped a bit and petted a snorting horse outside. Mr B arrived walking, through a scent of spices and smell of dirt, ten minutes early which is something quite unusual for him. He couldn’t imagine Mr K was twenty minutes early, and not by accident. They immediately recognized each other, being the only two clients at the kiosk. They sat around a small table on high and uncomfortable stools, and asked for beverages and food with mysterious names.
Chapter 2: map
15 july h 13.19.46 When Mr. B talked about the places where he wanted to build
They waited two days before meeting each other again. Mr B tried hard to understand the meaning of all those images and definitions, as well as what Mr K meant exactly. What did those things had to do with architecture? Being a person very precise and rational, he tried to make sense out of those elements - to contextualise them, to create some sort of index of connection.It hadn’t been easy; those images, that text so complex and easily misinterpreted. It seemed that as soon as you put them into a category - a box - they would suddenly move again creating more confusion; they wouldn’t allow a unique interpretation, instead they’d give birth to new ones, new points of view. Anyway Mr B didn’t give in, he knew it wasn’t an easy task but he was intrigued by it, and they were the only information Mr K had given to him. This was his new job, he was paid for it and thus had to do it.
It was sunny but shortly rain was to come, they decided to meet in the garden: Mr K suggested it, tired of being always where air was heavy and the sky was squared. The air was fresh and the lawn was still wet with dew. They sat on a bench. Mr B felt a horrible and overpowering need
of being concrete, for over a month he had dealt with the material Mr K gave him; he had applied himself to it and had tried to understand, he had done everything in his power, but he needed the answer to some simple questions. He couldn’t stop himself, he couldn’t even start their discussion with his usual approach, and he got straight to the point. As a matter of fact though, Mr K was not one for simple questions…
B."Mr K, excuse the pettiness of my query, but do we have good land on which to build these things you is talking about?
K. “Mr B, you read my mind! Yes, this is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about!”
B. “Ohh, excellent! Where? How big is it?”
K.“It’s everywhere and it has all different sizes”
B. “Mmmm, such as?”Mr B hadn’t been able to finish his sentence or ask all the questions he had in mind before Mr K produced a picture carefully folded in white tissue paper.
K“Look at what I made for you! These are the places I have chosen for my architecture, you know I’m not an architect nor a geographer and I’m not very familiar with maps; because of that I put in this diagram all the information that I felt was important. I hope it is useful.” Mr B was impatient for it to be disclosed, he wasn’t paying too much attention to Mr K’s words because he thought the answer to his questions would come straight from the big picture Mr K was showing him.
K.“Well, I think it would be best to choose a place where to face these arguments, where there is room enough to add another layer to the city - building for the sake of itself wouldn’t make much sense.”
Mr B looked around, anxiously unaware, then paid more attention, but he still didn’t understand. He had expected a cadastral map, a land survey, a precise geographical or
morphological indication; even an old plan on any scale, but what he saw didn’t bring him back to any of those categories.
K.“I was looking at those places, at the their image, at the real and at the memorized one, as an overlap of forms and meanings of these forms, of tradition and evolution, realized through time, aimed at giving birth to an heterogeneous image. This story, made of gesture, action, tradition and rite, duty and pleasure of people, animals and machines, also entails architecture.I say things that are obvious, I know, but maybe is best to understand what are we actually doing here?”
B.“Mr K. I was expecting to talk about square meters and authorizations, of chance to access and private property…”
K.“You are right, I forgot about those! Oh well, we will also deal with that, but I thought it was better to agree on the meaning of our action and feel free to think a bit since we will have to deal with enough rules later on.”
B.“You know what? You are right Mr B!”
The two man started to understand each other: the poor architect was worn out, he had never seen such a client, usually the discussion was about efficiency on costs or square meters, while now he would have to face things he would have never thought. He didn’t give up, he thought perhaps Mr K was right; after all, it gave him the chance to have a lot of fun doing his job. Maybe he had to take himself less seriously thought Mr B.He went home, wanting to better understand that map or whatever it was; Mr K was most certainly a person quite eccentric!This time he tried to put some order into his ideas, of course because of his own love for all things accurate and concrete, but also because he wanted to bring to life Mr K’s thoughts; it would be a shame for Mr K had imagined to keep being only words, he had taken to heart Mr K’s desires and wanted to satisfy him, although it wouldn’t be easy.
When Mr B talked about the places where he wanted to build
1_ The stratified city. There was an old city made of visible and consistent layers, as
if the fit of different pieces was able to create a unique and compact form; even in its complexity and fragility, it revealed its history, its joy as well as its blows and glories. It was thanks to this that throughout time it had learnt to renew itself in a remarkable and classical and out of style way; it wasn’t able indeed to adapt to what was going on around it because of the character itself of its forms, traditions and history, were quite in the way and wouldn’t allow to easily change course from one side to the other: because of this it was like a huge, strong animal - heavy and able to move very slowly, dragging around many things, found or collected.
He talked to him specifically about this borough, with the scent of family, ancestor and future, his grandmother and her grandmother herself had lived there: he had never lived there, his memories of it were vague, but he remembered it being a nice and quiet area with the scent of memories, tradition and innovation. It wasn’t for sure a modern borough, but it gave room to thought and you could see it had been designed with care and hope, hope that you could still feel in the air.
Mr K talked about a plot, a crossroads. He liked its triangular shape, and that’s why he had invested in that plot. There he planned on building some sort of house, homes for different kind of families, or people that would have lived as a family. So he thought the best solution for the crossroads would have been to pass through it, denying its existence, and giving it a better chance to exist, not just as a boring and prude crossroads. So he explained his intentions:
“My grandmother was an elegant woman and used to live in this borough. A quiet area made of beautiful buildings, regular houses and very beautiful sorely because it was designed with love as you could notice by the tiniest detail, like a perfectly fitting dress. I would like for this custom to be kept. The grandma of my grandmother used to live in a palace, descended somehow from a royal family, very royal I believe to be living in such a building. That’s why if I had a family I would love for Mr B to design my home and the building as if he were designing a home for
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my great-grandmother today.”Mr B was listening to Mr K amazed: buying a plot because it has a nice shape? Absurd! Mr K had to have quite a lot of money, and his way of thinking was always so peculiar it seemed to be coming from another world.
The places he had chosen were not nearby the area, but just in his mind, thus he kept going talking about another big city
2_ The eccentric city. There was a nice river, that often in the past had been its own wealth; it was a complex and diverse city, its variegate history had made it a soul-less city, or better, a multi-soul city unaware of it. It was a city always in action and happy, where people never aged; a generous city in constant change able to be interpreted, a city extremely free as a sand dune that changes along with wind and people’s steps, that cannot be cancelled but can definitely be modified. It’s hardly surprising then to find a river harbour where you wouldn’t expect it to be, able to recall other landscape and eras, similar to a seaport but on a river. The difference was quite clear: it had bank and limits, not the horizon like the sea; this would seem a limit already, but the endless horizon from time to time may be so frightening that it stops and paralyzes more than river banks. This place had been a wood, a forest, and the place where kings would go resting: then nature became more and more artificial, with cranes, machinery and plenty of cars. The bank in front of the harbour was an island hosting a huge and busy highway where nature and artifice met, as well as reality and suggestion. He had chosen this place because a mill needs a river and he needed a mill, and maybe, this place itself was in need of a mill.
3_ The infrastructural city.
The third place was a hard one to point out; it was a place between others. To describe it you had to refer to something else: it actually was an infrastructure of places; it built a line parallel to a highway. This highway was in the middle of a level land and linked the airport to centre of a big and foggy city. It was a peculiar and remarkable place, forms and colours were used in a brave or maybe witless way. It was able to be as boring and flat as a highway can be, while hiding at the same time many surprises. This place used to host lawns that now were hidden by huge industrial buildings with the most peculiar forms, with signs that were both functional and for marketing, precise at the same time, able to turn the atmosphere of the area to something entirely unique. It wasn’t a cosy place, it wasn’t pleasant, but it was fun. It was a place to discover with rules, a mix between a wild forest and a fun fair.
4_ The abyss city. The fourth was a disturbing place that once you had visited you would never forget. It was isolated and forgotten on an island: islands, as someone says, are dangerous places where you know that sooner or later you’ll have to sink, and that’s why inhabitants live along with a peculiar resignation. This area, in particular, had already experienced movement, willing to go back to the abyss, and one day spread fear around its occupants while shaking off many towns, people and lives. And as not to go against an unknown will, there had been many ruins of the event, visible and changeable. In the meanwhile another city had been built, with enthusiasm and good will: people were trying to forget that tiny place, those memories, the pain and the melancholy, but they never made it. And even the new hope turned into melancholia. Everyone slowly became sick with unhappiness. People and buildings, the landscape and the animals.
Mr B then took the map and all the notes of what he had just heard and decided to reorganize and rationalize that bunch of disordered materials, to understand and to give some sort of geography and orientation to those places.
Chapter 3 : sketch
15th September ore 10:09:56when Mr.K shows Mr.B his architectural fantasies
The two met again, this time in the evening during sunset. The sky turned slowly from blue into orange and then became red: the two men were on a terrace surveying the city from where you could perfectly see this change, able to calm down souls. They had become quite familiar, Mr K for all his austerity was quite informal, with a vitality that was contagious and brave: realizing it, Mr B had been able to control his fears and take courage.
Mr K looked like he was again looking for something and Mr B wasn’t sure whether to be happy about it or to be terrified by it, but he showed interest about what his client would get him this time.
“You know, since I was young I have been experimenting with drawing and thanks to our long conversations I got some ideas: now I decided to show you these sketches.”He took a big amount of drawings and sketches done on wallpaper, tissues and any kind of paper. Mr B fainted for a second, especially when Mr K said: “I want my architecture to look like this!”Architecture! That’s how he labelled his drawings, you couldn’t even understand from where you were supposed to look at them, which were the side up, if they were upside down, how big where there, and so on… but Mr B, patient, realized that as usual, the only way to better understand what was going on was to keep talking with Mr K and asking him some questions: even thought it may not seem so, Mr K had his logic, and was able to explain exactly what he had imagined.
Mr K saw the fear into Mr B’s eyes for what he had shown him and what he was asking him to realize. Thus he tried to reassure him: “Everything is simple, far more simple than it looks like”, he said.
Chapter 4 : architecture
1st October 18:09:01 maybe a bit laterwhen Mr. B finally shows what he has come up with
He took some of those drawings and started to talk“Mr B first of all you must not get frightened, even a simple flower if you look at it carefully can be a peculiar object. Fine, maybe what you’re looking at is quite unusual, but there’s an explanation: there’s many actually, and , honestly, I am not here to give you a lesson, but I can tell you what I’ve imagined. You on the other hand must not stop your imagination because if you won’t be generous with your heart and your imagination, well, we won’t be able to help each other”
The Mill Modernity and Tradition “Do you see this – he said with a laugh and eyes that were vibrant and full of joy – this is a building: well, sure, it could also be a teapot… or a dinosaur, a monster or a vacuum cleaner? What do you think? For this matter it will be a building, hoping that once built, once it will become real and concrete, it will leave the observer thoughtful and unsure. Is it a teapot? As long as it is a building, as a space to be used, it will be functional: it’s important for you not to forget this. This will be the office building, facing the river, in other words, a mill. Do you see what I mean? A building that’s simple and modest, recognizable and remarkable: we need to reflect on what has to be done in order for the mill and the modern glass-made building to meet!It will be a building, self-sufficient and independent, free, it will integrate with the landscape by negating it, it will have to be natural, wild and elegant at the same time.”
The Dress Decorum and concreteness
“Ah! Look here - and he takes his time to observe something he had never looked at – this is another building, looking like a dress, made of layers: veils that hide, dress and decorate, accurately made so the fit is perfect, with a front and a back, finding itself simultaneously in two different streets and having to have a front and back even though it’s impossible to recognize them: the hidden details are able to give it a softer look, the lining makes it more comfortable, warmer, the veils underneath give it movement. That’s how you must think about this building: here people will be living, everyone beneath the dress.”
The trellis Geometry and nature
“But let’s keep going, here is something else I wanted to show you, this is a tower, can you see it? This tower, like crystal, copies the geometry of nature in the landscape, an artificial geometry. It’s like a mountain, made of iron, welcoming anyone willing to escalate it, to own it, to visit it: animals, vegetation, people. It’s an observatory and maybe something more: it’s also a zoo and a botanical garden. Birds asked me for it, they are tired of listening to their grandparents remembering about high mountains and pure air, here they don’t know any of these things: trellises, roofs and drainpipe are their homes, and they asked me to ask you these questions, to ask yourself these questions.”
Caravaggio representation and use
“Finally there is a factory, or a farmhouse, between hills, a place to work, meditate, able to set its own time without having to go along with time set by others. It welcomes its guests with strength and irony as to underline its power of inhabiting a desert territory, as a recognition that rebirth is possible. It takes care of nature around, extremely rich, maybe, but surely rich enough and beautiful.” Once Mr B gained all this information, he had to make it, he had to make Mr K’s dreams come true. He had to give an actual shape to what Mr K had imagined, to their functions: thus he started working and producing drawings and visions of potential architecture.
“Mr K do you think we have achieved what you set out to? Is this, from a formal and functional viewpoint, the ideal result?”
“Dear Mr B, I never thought we were going to get to this! What we have come up with is just one possible solution, it is an attempt, we may have done better, or worse: but what we’re living is just one possible reality, and we would never be arrogant enough to consider it the very best one, and that’s it.”
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Marie von Blanche is a project by Giulia Tubelli and Stefano Boccardo, it was sponsored by GAI Giovani Artisti Italianiand Brico Io. It was invited to the Exhibition Festival of architecture in Tarragona “CiutatsCreactives” in June 2011 exposed in Place del Rei and the Festival of architecture inTurin July 2011 hosted in the Cortile d’Onore of Castello del Valentino.
MARIE VON BLANCHE
If it was an animal, was a quadruped with 9 crooked legs, or a dinosaur,
If it was architecture was a small bird's house or a postbox,or a shelter on a three.
If it was a game, was a card game made of many real and fantastic images to be melted together.
What's that?
As the story goes there was a woman, called Marie von Blanche. She lived between 2 Centuries, in particular between VI and VII century, between Alsace and Loren, in the balance between 2 countries, France and Germany.Some say that Marie for well known historical reasons was in that period traveling back and forth, ceaselessly.A brave woman, traveling alone, in such Ages, with her own portable house.
If it was a woman, was a traveling, brave, metamorphic woman.
Marie von Blanche represent a requirement, a need bound to our generation our future.
A wish to built and to built ourselves.
If it was a wish it was freedom.
Marie is a girl, with many faces; she absorbs many way of being and controverts them every time, to build up a new identity.
Marie is suspended one meter above the hearth, if one wants to get inside, needs to abandon the real world, to be welcomed in a different, shocking reality.
If it was a window, was a bean,If it was a door, was a keyhole,If it was a skylight, was hatchway.
Marie is a traveler; she's brought in many places in the world through her adventures.Curious, she fits in, and observes the landscape.
15.Marie von BlancheAD casa april 2012Giulia Tubelli , Stefano Boccardo
