Auditorium design

Primary objective = bring in as many people as possible within the optimum range of distances from the performance area, by:

• increasing the degree of encirclement in plan
• vertical layering eg. add in one or more tiers - this has the advantage of increasing number of seats without unduly increasing the distance from the stage. However, is more difficult to get good sightlines - shallow tiers help resolve this

Auditorium

Do not have the audience too obviously split - downplay the division of the balconies by placing the seats close to the edge...with railings designed to lean on.
Balconies to be no more than 2 seats deep

No reflective materials around the stage that would distract the audience (unless intentional)
Advantages of balconies:

• bring more people visually closer to the stage
• not so obvious when there are lots of empty seats (eg. can close off the top tiers) - better atmosphere

Seats

• audience in balconies will be looking down, not reclining
• balcony edges should be comforable for leaning on
• ideal scenario would involve adjustable seating (heights) in the top rows, moveable seats like the Q theatre

Visual & acoustic limits

Acoustics
Ideal scenario = no technology between actor and audience (eg. to enhance sound), and no background noise (NR of 25 or less?) - in particular mechanical/plant/plumbing noise

• NB.

Acoustics depend on:

• the behaviour of sound reflections and on the period of reverberation
• which in turn depends on:
• sound absorbed and reflected by the surfaces of the stage
• the volume of the auditorium and stage
• design of reflecting and absorbing surfaces can assist acoustics - old theatres with elaborate moulded plaster decorations which break up sound reflections mean a higher chance of being acoustically satisfactory than modern theatres with large areas of plain smooth walls and ceilings.
• no ceiling will mean there is no reflection back down into audience...
• artificial amplication is not usually desirable

Aids:

• sound absorbing material in the seats/balconies in circular theaters to avoid focusing of the sound
• minimise smooth surfaces on walls
• avoid deeply overhung balconies (best to restrict the depth from the front of the balcony to the rearmost seat under it to not more than twice the distance from the audience head level (eg. 1150mm from the floor) to the balcony sofit, at the front line of the balcony)
• reverberation will improve acoustics (providing not to much or too little)
• speech in auditoria of 300-12,000m3, the average reverberation time at mid frequencies should not be > 1.2s, or < 0.7s.
• is directly proportional to the volume of the theatre
• NB. a volume of around 3-5 m3 per seat gives about the right amount of absorption (audience plus materials) to provide reverberation times for ideal speech conditions - up to about 300 seats.

Vision

NB. 'P' is the lowest and nearest point which the whole audience should be able to see clearly

HD = horizontal distance (linear) between the eyes of the audience in consecutive rows

Average eye height is normally assumed to be 1120mm (but depends on seat design)

Balcony front height can be assumed to be 790mm.

Plays

• Visual limits - usually it is essential for the audience to be close enough to discern facial expressions so the usual accepted max = 20m (from centre of perfomance area)
• Acoustics - period of reverberation must be shorter for clarity of speech

Musicals, operas

• Visual limits - facial expressions are less important so the usual accepted max = 30m
• Acoustics - period of reverberation is longer for music and longer still for choral singing

Theatres: Planning Guidance for Design & Adaptation. Roderick Ham.Architectural Press: London. 1987

Seats

Allow at least 0.5m2 per person (seated):

• width-row spacing of 0.45m2 (or more)
• max of 16 seats per aisle OR 25 seats if one side exit door of 1m width is provided for every 3-4 rows
• exits/escape routes - 1m wide per 150 people (min width 0.8m)

Research - Dimensions

Malae/Marae space

This refers only to the sunken space directly outside the whare nui.
Assume a person width is around 0.5m, then if we want to accomodate a maximum of about ???people at a time, the marae space should be about (1875x500mm) x ???

Best to think in terms of the usual marae space (around 30m across, or approx 900m2)
NB. half a ruby field is around 50x70 (3,500m2).
Current site marae space is 35m in diameter so (area of a circle: 3.14 x (17.5 x 17.5)) = 960m2 (approx)

 

Performance space - traditonal auditorium-like space + fly tower

NB. treat this as a space to house opera (eg. rather than theatre)

• at least 0.5m2 per person for seated spectators (0.45m2 per seat) - minimum
• max 16 seats per aisle (or 25 if there is a side exit door 1m wide for every 3-4 rows)
• exits - 1m wide per 150 people
• volume of auditorium based on acoustic reverberation requirements - for opera: 6-8m3/spectator 
• volumes should be no less than this to avoid air changes (draughts) that are too pronounced
• max distance at which it is still possible to see facial expressions = 24m (32m major movements are still recognizable)

• comfortable proportions and often good acoustics of the classical theatres of the 18th and 19th centuries are based on specific rules of proportion (see diagrams 9 & 10 below):

 

Outdoor performance area with a traditional ampitheatre-type arrangement (sunken)
Other associated requirements:

• 1 WC/100 spectators min (1/3 men, 2/3 women)
• coat etc storage - 1 locker per 4 people or 4m per 100 people
• foyer space - 0.8 to 2.0m2/spectator depending on the function of the foyer eg. bar area etc
• cafe/reception/bar area associated with this performance space.
• The rehersal space should be similar dimensions to the stage/performance area itself.
• Make allowances for the performance space to also be used as a church, so ideally a creche facility will be included...

Whare nui or Fale tele

Dimensions - must be large enought to sleep 80 people on the floor. Maybe 30mx10m? 300-400m2?
Traditional shape with porch and only one window at front only. However, include windows in the porch sides (?)

Whare kai/dining hall

Research - the origins of theatre

" The origin of theatre is ritual..."

Theatre is thought to have originated as a performance of ritual activities that did not require initiation on the part of the spectator. Though this similarity of early theatre to ritual is not supported by Aristotle, who defined theatre in contrast to the performances of sacred mysteries: theatre did not require the spectator to fast, drink the kykeon, or march in a procession. However theatre did resemble the sacred mysteries in the sense that it brought purification and healing to the spectator by means of a vision, the theama; the physical location of performances was accordingly named theatron.

Theatron = place where spectators watch a performance - the most important place like this in ancient Greece was the theatre of Dionysus, an open air theatre supposedly created by Dionysus, the god.

 

 

Though the first 'theatre' may have occured in Egypt, on the banks of the Nile in a ceremony celebrating the dead. Regardless, it seems that the origins involve an outdoor setting, close to nature.

 

However, for the past 500 years the word 'theatre' usually means an enclosed (walls, roof) building which allows artists to exercise heightened aesthetic control by cutting out the natural environment. "Theatres since the Renaissance have become temples to artiface."
Theatre that does occur outdoors is usually staged at night, under lights, with amplified and modified sound. We are used to places that focus our attention on the performance at the expense of the natural world. Not the case with the original theatre...
The fact that the Athenians' theatre shut out neither natural nor civic environments speaks volumes about their theatrical aesthetic - aggressively public, part of the ongoing life of the city and subject to weather, acted out on a beaten earth orchestra with the land, sea, and sky beyond. Drawing on popular myths, tragedy enacted old stories against a backdrop of nature and the city - their progress measured by the narrative but also by the sun as it crossed the sky. There are many references to the sun in Greek theatre.
- Rush Rehm, 'Radical Theatre: Greek Theatre and the Modern World': Gerald Duckworth & Co. 2003.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_theatre
http://www.cwu.edu/~robinsos/ppages/resources/Theatre_History/Theahis_1.html
http://www.theatrehistory.com/origins/

Ideas - "village" layout

Intitial ideas for layout - arranged in a northeast facing direction?
In keeping with the concept of being in unity with nature, the centre cannot be a single monumental structure. Better to be a series of interconnect 'fale', like a village. The main indoor performance area can be/will be the largest structure.
Semi-circular layouts which define open outdoor rooms.

Performance space opening out into the inlet, with 2 spaces: inernal, large: external, open with visual sight line to the island, facing N/E, same orientation as the whare nui.

Mutability

Mutability - repurposing, flexibility, reusing a building for some other purpose late in its life etc
Mutability - a transience of form and materials:

• For Maori, there was a constant process of seasonal building and rebuilding, a process which also provided the ongoing opportunity to practice and pass on construction skills to the next generation.
• This constant renovation and rebuilding had the effect of galvanising support from local communities and cementing relationships as they worked together on building projects.
• The Samoan fale is designed to allow a cyclone to strip its thatch, then it is repaired
• Flexibility and responsiveness to weather

Research - Samoan architecture

NB. main difference between the Maori whare rununga and the Samoan fale tele is where ceremonies take place: Maori - outside the building; Samoan - inside the building

Fale - main elements to note:

• openess - open to sides, can see outside (cf. whare runanga is traditionally very enclosed with only one window)
• high ceiling
• sometimes sitting on a raised base
• smells - from outside but also a strong smell of the woven material the fale is made from

 

Albert Refiti article on Samoan Architecture

Pacific Space article (Bill McKay, Antonia Walmsely)

 

See this article on the ceremony of the raising of the posts - the working builders (Sa Tangaloa) have high prestige http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BucSamo-t1-body1-d2-d8-d14.html#BucSamo-fig-BucSamo091a

 

 



Research - Marae & Place, Tapu & Noa

Marae, Malae

Open areas - have to have a reason for being there...Energy flow (see diagrams), internal space of surround buildings/fale.

Space dimensions - Maori maraes:

Research into Marae & Place: http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/1233/Nikora%20-%20Place%20attachment.pdf?sequence=1

With respect to the idea of place attachment applied to Māori:

• that place is a social concept as much as a physical one - while the environment and surroundings were mentioned, the main focus seems to be the people, the socialisation and the social relationships as being part of what is their attachment.
• a marker of memory, with reference to the past and childhood, recollections of play, visiting, remembering the families who lived in the area, grandparents who had passed away, parents who had passed
• in whakapapa, in dialogue and in thought, your connections are a reflection of who you are, where you come from, who you are related to, the mountain and river you associate with, the lands you can stake claim to and a pretty good indication of where you will be buried.
• the findings emphasize the importance of the marae beyond the physical space it occupies.

Tapu & Noa

A system of tapu and noa prevails when visiting a marae:

• The tapu-noa system distinguishes between places and events that are off limits or need to be given cautious treatment, and those that are safe and accessible to the majority.
• Tapu - many interpretations of tapu, but most emphasise a sacred quality and linked in some way to gods or divinities However, a more utilitarian view of the purpose of tapu was discussed by Te Rangi Hiroa who drew a connection between the use of tapu and the prevention of accidents or calamities, implying that a dangerous activity or location would be declared tapu in order to prevent misfortune. More than a divine message from the gods, or the recognition of status, the conferment of tapu was linked to healthy practices.
• Whaiora, Māori Health Development takes a similar view. Tapu is described as a type of public health regulation, basically concerned with the avoidance of danger and the promotion of good health 
• Noa - a term used to denote safety; harm was less likely to befall anyone who entered a noa location, ate food rendered noa by cooking, or touched a noa object.
• Noa can be thought of as a kind of blessing in that it removes tapu, eating removes tapu in this way....(eg. sharing a meal on the marae)

There is the expectation that on a marae, a cautious attitude should be adopted, since the laws of tapu and noa still prevail.

• On some marae, the left side of a meeting house is tapu, the right side is noa.
• Usually the marae ātea is tapu, at least for visitors until formalities have been exchanged.
• Visitors themselves may be regarded as tapu and tangata whenua might be reluctant to make any formal contact until the tapu state becomes noa.
• Cooked food is noa, so that the way of reducing tapu is to enjoy a meal together.

The laws of tapu (and the corresponding state of noa) serve a different function in modern times than they did in earlier but some elements remain eg. behaviour on the marae atea - individuals are not at liberty to roam as they might wish, nor to behave in a manner not sanctioned by the rest of the community on the marae
(From Journal of Polynesian Society, Volume 108 1999 Volume 108, No. 4  Marae and implications for a modern Maori psychology, by Mason Durie, p 351-366 )

 

Myths & Traditions - Samoan, Maori

Samoa

http://www.samoa.co.uk/creation.html
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-TuvAcco-t1-body1-d48.html

Fa'asamoa (the Samoan Way)
http://www.samoa.co.uk/faasamoaintro.html

Rangi & Papa - Creation

In Māori mythology the separation of sky and earth allowed light to enter the world which in turn led to the growth of all plants and animals. However, the separation was bitter, painful and precipitated by the children’s need to dominate their parents.

In the beginning there was no sky, no sea, no earth and no Gods. There was only darkness, only Te Kore, the Nothingness. From this nothingness, the primal parents of the Māori came, Papatuanuku, the Earth mother, and Ranginui, the Sky father.

Papa and Rangi came together, embracing in the darkness, and had 70 male children. These offspring became the gods of the Māori. However, the children were locked in their parents embrace, in eternal darkness, and yearned to see some light.

They eventually decided that their parents should be separated - Tumatauenga, the god of War, said "Let us kill our parents". However, Tane-Mahuta, the god of man and forests, and all which inhabits the forests, thought they should be separated. He thought that Rangi should go up above, to the sky, and that Papa should should go below, to dwell on earth. All the children, except Tawhiri Matea (god of winds and storms who feared that his kingdom would be overthrown) agreed with Tane.

One by one the children tried to separate their parents but with no luck. Lastly Tane-Mahuta rose. Strong as the kauri tree, he placed his shoulders against his mother and his feet against his father Ranginui, and he pushed hard. Rangi and Papa cried in pain, asking their sons" why do you wish to destroy our love?"
After a long time Tane finally managed to separate Rangi and Papa, and for the first time the children saw the light of day come streaming in. Once this happened, Tawhiri Matea, the god of winds and storms, and who had been against the separation of his parents, left for the sky to join his father.
The turbulent winds and storms on earth are caused by Tawhiri Matea, in revenge for this brother's acts.

Between, Va

What happens in between?

Between sky & sea

Between light & dark

Between birth & death

Between inside & outside

Between day & night

Between myth & reality

Between now & then...

 

Bridges span/create the divide between sky and sea/earth -see Heidegger's comments on bridges.

 

Lemi Ponifasio has referred to his work as the pursuit of the "Va-body", a conscious and responsible state of being.

The Va = the gap in the rock reef around an island. It's where the islanders' boats come in and go out for fishing or travel and it's the most dangerous part of the ocean.

 

"This is the point where we should be all the time," he says. "In Samoa we say in the va, that's what politeness is – it means to be in the space, to be paddling on both sides of the canoe, to be in balance. Maintain the space, it's like a motto in Samoa. That's the kind of theatre I'm trying to make, it's about being in the space.

"Our architecture is the same. In a typical Samoan house you have one room and everything is open. Births, deaths, love-making, eating, drinking, sleeping, fighting, discussion takes place in one space so you must learn negotiation. I like this. As opposed to the theatre which is a space of mystery."

 

[from an interview: http://www.scotsman.com/news/interview-lemi-ponifasio-choreographer-1-820363]

 

Cornelia Parker

(Movement suggested, a moment in between captured)

 

 

Rituals, Ceremony, Discarded

..and thinking of in between spaces..."reading between the lines" project by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh

 http://www.archdaily.com/298693/reading-between-the-lines-gijs-van-vaerenbergh/
http://www.gijsvanvaerenbergh.com/

 

 

Research - Maori Space & Time

Notes from NZ History lectures [Bill McKay]

The past is always in front of us (cf. Western view that it is behind), there for guidance and the future is behind us, as very few can see the future and what it has in store for us.

Maori word for North is the same as that for bottom/beneath (raro) which is why some early maps are shown 'upside down'

• importance of water is shown by proximity of early settlements to the coast, no roads; transport was via boat
• maps often drawn qualitatively (more important things appearing larger) so that a good harbour would be drawn larger than a poor one

 Other cultures of the South Pacific accept time and the processes of time as part of building, they accept mortality as part of architecture.

• 'mutability' - buildings, like people, develop and grow old but can (unlike people) be rebuilt, that is, they can change over time. They do not have to remain a snapshot in time - buildings must remain a useful tool, change over time to fulfil different purposes if needed.

Excerpts from 'Maori Time: Notions of Space, Time & Building Form' (Bill Mckay & Antonia Walmsley)

• Maori architecture may not conform to the Western model of the three dimensional object in space, and could also be understood as existing in time rather than space.
• The meeting house, or whare, does not emphasise the back at all - it is not important, it is a building that 'exists in time' - that is, only the front which you enter is important. Like meeting a person - you only look at the front/address the front, not the back. Only the exterior front is important in that initial relationship building process.
• 'Spatialisation of time' - in this concept the present is all important
• the dimensions of time have been collapsed into space
• this occurred when time began to be measured and quantified. It was no longer tied to the cyclic rhythm of nature and to the ancestor's rhythm of life and death.
• So when colonisation occurred, Maori were not only physically separated from their land but also dislocated from their culture with the Western concept of measured time:
• the intimate, mimetic reciprocal relationship between the human being, nature and the living past of ancestors, was replaced by a time experienced as space and mediated by a history 'frozen' into a mechanically measured dimension by genealogically unrelated people - Donna Awatere in 'Maori Sovereignty' (1984)
• so land lost its sprititual meaning...the squeezing of time into the spatial present leads to a devaluing of the past, of old people, of old ways, and of old things..

'Maori Time' - all people who live in urban industrial societies have their lives regulated by measured time. However, on the marae, the Maori concept of time takes over - slows down the rhythm of life. Measure time becomes meaningless as the values of relating to people, discussion and the arrival of consensus take over.

• Maori word for the future = muri; also meaning behind, because it cannot be seen (cf. Western view is that the future is in front of you).
• the past is always in front of us, there for guidance and the future is behind us, as very few can see the future and what it has in store for us - Maori view on the past/future.
• In the West, people define their nationality spatially through their location, a country but in the Pacific it tends to be defined tribally instead, through who they are related to rather than a particular region.

The Marae & Whare nui

Meeting House (whare nui)

• may be referred to in a number of ways: whare tipuna or whare tupuna, (ancestral house) whare whakairo (carved house), whare nui (large house), whare hui (meeting house), whare moe or whare puni (sleeping house) or whare runanga (council house).
• the whare is nearly always named after an ancestor, symbolically designed to represent the chief and his ancestors.
• in front of the whare is a tekoteko (carved figure) on the roof and at the entrance to the whare -represents the ancestor's head. The "maihi", or carved parts of the tekoteko which slope downwards from the whare, represent the ancestor's arms, held out as a welcome to visitors

Meeting House & Space

The Meeting House is not intended to be seen as an object in the round - one does not walk around it but has a facade, a face and is often metaphorically a body, the personification of ancestors.

• cannot just make a casual visit to a mare to visit a meeting house, there is a well-known series of events/protocols which take time.
• the house is experienced through a series of approaching steps and thresholds which are all primarily experienced in time rather than space.
• it is not intended to be seen as an object in space; one does not walk around the house and look at the sides and rear.

We experience the building in the same way that we experience the land or a person, thought a series of steps in time - our engagement with people and buildings exists more in time than space.

 

Welcome protocols

see also http://www.korero.maori.nz/forlearners/protocols/marae.html

• When the visitors, "manuhiri", advance into the Marae, they remain close together and advance at a slow respectful pace.
• The women of the marae perform the welcome, the Te karanga : "Come forward, visitors from afar, Welcome, welcome!" (Haere mai, Haere mai). Bring with you the spirits of your dead, that they may be greeted , that they may be mourned. Ascend onto our Marae, ascend the sacred Marae of our people. Welcome, Welcome. (Haere mai, Haere mai)"
• Usually visitors will stop for a minute or two, in order to remember those who have died, before continuing into the marae itself. Once the visitors are inside the space, greetings and speeches take place. The speaker moves backwards and forwards as he speaks. Mostly, speeches are followed by waiata (songs) by the women.
• A traditional welcome = a "powhiri", plus hongi which is the mingling of breath between the two people, representing unity. Often this is performed three times (first is a greeting to the person, the second acknowledges ancestors, and the third honours life in this world).

Genus Loci, Renzo Piano's JMT Cultural Centre

Genus loci - the spirit of the place

The spirit that imbues a place with meaning and appropriateness.
It cannot be designed to order...it has to evolve, be allowed to happen, to grow and change from the efforts of those who live and work there.

• imperfection (see Ruskin) and generosity (doing something for its own sake, without an ulterior motive, an indication that someone cares for a place)

Thinking about a favourite place within in a public building I visit relatively often - the Auckland Art Gallery 'hidden' staircase in the original building - it's a place that the casual visitor probably wouldn't go to, a place that only those who know the building would actively seek out, a place that has traces of the past, a place that I feel like I can almost call my own.

A secret place - having a secret place makes you feel a certain connection with that place...eg. hidden places, tunnels, nooks,

More thoughts on place...

A sense of place cannot be designed and created in detail, but an explicit understanding of the place might help and support particular places. A key component is that these places must be 'designed from the inside' - allowing them to rise spontaneously out of the requirements and concerns of particular people and landscapes.

People are linked to their places by such varied patterns of activity that they can't all be identified. That is, it's not possible to necesarily make generalisations about the importance of certain activities observed in a place.

'Place' is best applied to those fragments of human environments where meanings, activities and a specific landscape are all implicated.

Whether spaces and settings created might encourage a sense of place among residents depends on the ability of the designer to appreciate the virtues and spirit of place, and their skill in using this ability to create attractive forms...The potential for 'place-making' solely through physical design is very limited. (For example, the Dharavi slum)

How to help create places with spirit?

• strive for an understanding of the qualities that are essential for all distintive and significant places
• develop a sensitivity to the attributes of places, find ways of initiating and directing local developments while also acknowledging the global character of modern life..
• know that places are contexts of human life and, as such, are themselves alive, growing, changing

Edward Relph, Modernity & the Reclamation of Place, in 'Dwelling, Seeing, and Designing: Toward a Phenomenological Ecology'. Edited by David Seamon. State University of New York Press, New York. 1993.

Renzo Piano's Jean Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre & genus loci

A distinguishing feature of this project was the deep reading of the site. Piano created an anthropological framework which then provided a starting point for the project. This framework included derivation of the singularity of that particular location:

• the characteristic patterns of life and culture specific to that place
• the common memory of the place
• the relationship between land and sea
• the ecosystem
• the mythology at the core of Kanak culture

From a series of  interviews with Renzo Piano (A & U: architecture & urbanism, 1996 Dec., n.12(315), p.92-102 and A & U: architecture & urbanism, 1998 Aug., n.8(335), p.[80]-111)

The site was so beautiful I thought we should do nothing there. The shape of the building comes from the land – a very Kanak attitude: you make the building on the land not the opposite, you don’t adapt the land to the building. So it becomes part of the topography. The winds were important and influenced the sail-like shape of the cases.

...

This is not copying Kanak culture, it is accepting it. The attitude to produce from a place rather than just make an interpretation of place.  The site is already a building and the building is an extension of the site.

 

‘Cultural soup’

When we talk about culture we usually mean our own: a soup blended with ingredients from Leonardo da Vinci, Freud, Kant, Darwin, Louis XIV and Don Quixote...In the pacific, it’s not just the recipe that is different but also the ingredients. We can approach their soap with detachment, bringing our own cutlery, or we can try to understand how it was born, why it has developed the way it has and what philosophy of life has shaped it.

 The spirit of the Pacific is ephemeral

Pacific constructions are born out of unity with nature, using the perishable materials it provides. The continuity of a village in time is not based on the duration of the individual building but on the preservation of a topology and pattern of construction.

Ideas - other Cultural/Community Centres

http://www.archiprix.org/2013/index.php?project=3004

http://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/arch-showcase/2011/11/23/jnc-sales-office-community-arts-center-in-xiamen-china-by-line-and-space-llc/

 

 

 

Movement

A collection of buildings that blend into the site but also stand out from a distance..
Structures that suggest movement - like Frank Gehry's Dancing House or Herzog & DeMeuron's De Young Museum:

Model photos

 

Model made to investigate transparency, layers, movement but also 'between-ness' (Va)

 



Time for...Pallasmaa & Heidegger, Zumthor...

Sounds like I need to get into some phenomenology...
Architecture - Building
Industralised construction - Craftsmanship
Autonomous practice - Consultative

Architecture as providing an identification with the specific character of a place, an 'existential foothold'

Heidegger & 'Place'

"Building Dwelling Thinking"
Being-in-the-world
Space (abstract) - Place (socially experienced)
Language, far from being the servent of man, is all too often master - the words building and dwelling, instead of the word architecture, allowed Heidegger to emphasis inhabition and experience over the priorities of aesthetics.

"Dwelling poetically"

Architecture makes the world visible and spatial - gathering its presence in a 'thing'. In other words, the work of architecture presents, or 'brings something into presence' (it is not representaton')
Man exists between (like MAU's discussion about Va):

• earth & sky
• birth & death
• joy & pain
• work & word (?)

The German word for space, Raum, originates from raumen which means 'freeing of places for human dwelling'. "The place opens a domain, in gathering things which here belong together...the places are embodied by means of sculptural forms. These embodiments are characters which constitute the place...Sculptural embodiment is therefore the 'incarnation of the truth of Being in work which founds its place." [Hmmm...]

Architecture occurs in the boundary as an embodiment of world. "A boundary is not that at which something stops but, as the Greeks recognized, the boundary is that from which something beings its presencing." An embodiment of difference.

Dwelling - implies being at one with the world, peaceful, contented, liberating. This is related to the kind of building which is cultivating or nurturing.
Considering a dining table as a 'dwelling', then moving the table around a room or setting it for a meal is a kind of building of a sort- done in response to the needs of the people who will eat there. So dwelling is dependent on building and also vice versa.

One can occupy buildings daily but not feel at home in them or near to them. The German word for building, Bauen, originally means to dwell.
Dwelling requires building and then rebuilding to respond to changing needs of dwelling [- the concept of mutability?]

A building shouldn't be understood just as an object to admire, but rather it is part of an ongoing human experience of building and dwelling.

So, according to Martin Heidegger in "Building Dwelling Thinking" the relation between man and space takes on the form of dwelling. A building is what allows for a sense of place in which dwelling occurs.
A bridge stretched across a river, Heidegger argues, provides such a sense of space. Out of numerous possibilities along the river, the construction of a bridge was the site in which a place was constituted. For Heidegger, a bridge is a manifestation of the fourfold which is at the base of all dwelling. A bridge collects and unites all aspects of the fourfold (earth, sky, mortals and divinities) into a "thing". The bridge initiates the lingering and hastening of people from one side to the other, it gathers together the landscape. The bridge allows people to negotiate their relationship with earth, sky, divinities and mortals - it allowed them to stand on earth above sky, above the void; underneath the bridge, it allowed people to stand between earth and earth like a roof sheltering them from the sky; they may give thanks to the divinties for their presence....the bridge allows people to understand the world around them.
The bridge is a like a picture frame - it presents what crosses it, it also presents the world around the bridge to people crossing it.
As a thing which negotiates between people and their circumstances, the bridge might occasionally prompt people to think about being.

Mythological moments & rituals such as those created by Peter Zumthor in the Vals spa

• memory, myths - the immediate evidence of experience and memory
• touch, smell, sound, taste - textures, steam, light

- From 'Heidegger For Architects' Adam Sharr Routeldge Taylor & Francis Group

Interview with Peter Zumthor about Vals:

"They...will recognise this building...because they know buildings like that...Ordinary people come in, older people come in here and say its good that I can come here and its not this cool atmosphere where I would like to wear a robe going into the water. "
 - a bit of mythology included, plus theatre in the arrival, but does not give a feeling of fakeness at all

Peter Zumthor "The Magic of the Real"
You need to read the entire essay about his description of an experience sitting in a square in Sukiennice, but at the end he states:
'Did my experience actaully have very little to do with the square and its atmosphere? ...I imagine there is no square and my feelings for the situation as it was then have already become unusually faint...Without the atmosphere of the square...the emotions would have never been the same...there is an interaction between our perception and the things that surround us....With my work, I contribute to the actual conditions, to the pleasant positioning in space that can trigger our emotions.
The magic of the real: this is for me the alchemy by which real substance is transformed into human emotions, that special moment of the emotional appropriation or transformation of matter, substance and form in architectural space."
He strives to create work in which people feel good, look good, which give a feeling of dignitiy and freedom.
The quality of sound, the temparature, the positioning of internal structures in spatial sequences which lead us, bring us about, but also free and seduce us.
The careful staging of tension between the interior and exterior, public and intimate

Memory of place

The community centre should be somewhere that people in the community want to
go to and feel comfortable in, but also be very proud of.

Something that can contribute to a sense of relating to or having an affinity with a place is the unconscious recollection of favourite childhood places, so I was keen to explore this before starting my design. However, ideally these memories would be from people who grew up in the general site
area.

So, I have asked a few people I know who may be able to help to answer and pass on the questions below. The answers may help to inform the more phenomenological aspects of my design...

Childhood experiences of “place”

1.      Think about some favourite childhood places that you went to on a regular basis

For example, your backyard, a park or playground, a beach or river, a room/place in a house or other building, a street, a tree house, homemade fort, etc.

 

2.      Describe each place as you remember it:

a.       Where/what was the place? 

b.      What did you usually do there?

c.       What did you mostly feel when you were there?

d.      Specific smells, or sounds?

e.      Did you usually share this place with other people? (who?)

3.      If it was a building, what do you remember about what it was made out of, or furnished with?

Please be as brief or as descriptive as you like – thank you  for your time on this! Angela

A sense of place - Dwelling - "Genius Loci"

Using Heidegger's definition of 'dwelling' that is, you can inhabit a building but not 'dwell' in it. You can occupy a building daily but not feel at home in it. In order to dwell in a building, you need to have a connection to the 'building' of that space - 'building' not in the sense of construction necessarily but refering to the nuturing and cultivation meaning of the word. Engaging somehow with the building. In Heidegger's terms, dwelling requires building - adapting/changing/reorganising the space to meet changing need over time.

Following on from this idea, it's important to me that the general community has a role in building this centre. For example:

• the meeting house/whare nui/fale tele should be simple in design to allow engagement of the local unskilled community in the building process. It should also allow addition of carvings and internal decoration relevant to them, perhaps created by them or commissioned by them, created on site in the workshop
• likewise for the other buildings such as the workshop/carving studio, the creche/playcentre/homework centre

"Man dwells when he can orientate himself wthin and identify himself with an environment, or, in short, when he experiences the environment as meaningful...This implies that the spaces where life occurs are places, in the true sense of the word. A place is a space which has a distinct character."
- Norberg-Schulz.
Norberg-Schulz developed the notion of 'genius loci' or the spirit of the place.

Modern life in general is starting to disengage place and a fixed home. The essence of dwelling - garnering memories, recollecting one's own personal histories - may not necessarily be bound to a specific place. A large number of things we used to identify ourselves with that were located 'at home' can now be carried with us - personal archives, images, favourite books and music.

Heidegger himself hinted at the possibility of dwelling without place, without a building - when dwelling in the sense is has in "Building Dwelling Thinking" will be abolished in favour of a 'feeling at home' achievable anywhere.
The possibility of of man's appropriating things made by others instead of building them by himself, and still being able to dwell, had been hinted at by Heidegger in "Poetically Man Dwells..." where he elaborates on the notion of buidling as the 'poetic taking of meaure' (by which human beings are made aware of their position in their world) and not of construction and care for things. Appropriation of things will thus be the key to man's assimilation and integration into his environment - his 'feeling at home'.

- taken from 'Dwelling and Architecture. From Heidegger to Koolhaas' - Pavlos Lefas. Jovis Verlag GmbH 2009

Research - To Do

Dance

Body - muscles, physiology, movement, neurobiology, senses
Audience interaction, (similar principles to theatre?)
Tempest - Shakespeare
MAU performances in general
Dance centres eg. Laban competition won by Herzog & DeMeuron, also Zumthor (entrant)
Famous choreographers

Site History

Mangere bridge
Pacific Garbage Dump/Mangere pollution problems
Castings of leaves & seeds
History of Mangere area in general - see Main Library 'White's Aviation' images for more historical background
James Turrell light studies

Questions for Lemi on Friday:

• in theatre, it is desirable for the audience to be aware of other audience reactions and for performers to see the audience - how important is this for your performances?
• what kind of interaction do you seek with your audience?
• what particular qualities of the space you perform in would you rate as very important?

Research - Choreographer's Handbook (notes)

Notes from 'A Choreographer's Handbook' by Jonathan Burrows, one of the UK's leading choreographers.

Space or place

• the philosopher Susanne Langer has said 'The primary illusion of dance is a virtual realm of Power - not actual, physically exerted power, but appearances of influence and agency created by virtual gesture'
• the space of dance also has this virtual quality - the placement of a person on a stage can approximate to a narrative or emotional force, a dancer can render a small space infinite

Performance space

• how you handle the space in which you perform is part of the contract you make with the audience - a more relaxed space invites a more relaxed gaze while clean surroundings demand sharper attention (though the reverse can be true).
• your surroundings are in dialogue with, and affected by, the performances that take place within them.
• if in a found environment, your raise references, meanings and questions in addition to those belonging to your performance - what dialogue can your material have with this space you have found? - can the material you make come from this environment itself? - or can it provide a contrast/friction to the context
• the space itself is not the performance

Audience

• the relationship with the audience is a circular thing - I give them clues as to how they might sit and they, in turn, give me permission to relax and do best what I've come to do
• sometimes of course, it is possible to use the situation of the unreality of a theatrical stage to become something extraordinary. This is one of the great pleasures of performing or watchin performance - that suspension of disbelief/to suspend doubt.
• our thinking about direction is in constant negotiation with compass points and square rooms. The audience is usually in front of you and facing them is one possibility but not the only one, and it isn't a guarantee of communication
• another way to meet the audience is to confront them. The strongest confrontation is  gently conscious of its purpose. Confrontation does not guarantee communicaton any more than facing the front...
• the gentle aim of the following principles, written by the composer Christian Wolff, is to liberate both audience and performers:
• a composition must make possible the freedom and dignity of the performer
• it should allow both concentration and release
• no sound or noise is perferable to any other sound or noise
• listeners should be as free as the players

Research - Mangere Bridge area, council reports

The Mangere-Otahuhu locality has one of the more diverse and young populations of Auckland.
Info from 2006 census:

• >50% of Pacific descent, 20% European, 17% Maori, 14% Asian
• about 30% were under 15 years (regional average = 22%)
• high unemployment (6.1%), low educational achievement (37.7% with no qualifications)

The draft Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Area Plan shows how the area could change over the next 30 years:

 

http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/plansstrategies/areaplans/Pages/mangere.aspx?tab=5

Goals which are related directly to the potential site at Norana Reserve:

• Improve ... access to and around the Manukau Harbour (along the coastline of the area facing Manukau Harbour)
• "Historically it has been hard to access the Manukau Harbour, and the harbour has suffered from environmental damage. Improving access to the harbour and better managing land use (including stormwater) will greatly increase the environmental and recreational potential of the Manukau Harbour"
• Provide town centres and local centres with suitable night-time activities, such as restaurants and cafés, to improve safety and business activity beyond the day
• Favona: develop a new local centre that includes social infrastructure, community facilities and a primary school.
• Identify and improve important public viewpoints (including along arterial roads) to help people find their way, create a visual link between areas and contribute to community identity
• Integrate Māori urban design principles into the design of the built environment and open space
• Favona: ensure new development is environmentally sensitive to the Manukau Harbour, and improves visual and physical links to and along the coast
• Favona: improve walking and cycling connections, particularly along, across Favona Road, and to the coast
• Funding for Norana Park development has been approved for 2016
• Develop a local centre and facilities including extended shops, new library and improved connections to surrounding community, public transport and schools In Favona
• Revitalise and celebrate the unique Māori and multi-cultural character and history of Māngere-Ōtāhuhu centres (Māngere-Bridge, Māngere, Favona, Māngere-East and Ōtāhuhu centres)

The New Auckland Unitary Plan has the Norana site listed as a 'significant coastal ecological area', plus a 'significant wading bird area'

See also the Mangere Gateway Project

Research - changing coastline over time

Images from the ARC aerial archives

 

 

Research - Site General (Norana)

7th March
sunny hot day (26degreesC)
12noon-1pm

Smells
mangrove - salty mangrove smells, fresh sea smells near edges
road edge - tires, rubber, tarseal, grass/vegetation

Sounds
cicadas, faint seagulls, lawnmowers or other machinery similar, wind
at the west end, faint sound of cars

First impressions
vast empty sites
however, this was midweek, midday and during the weekend would be quite different near the sportsground
surrounding houses are older, some not well maintained but many have lots of garden, single storey
exception = 49/51 Norana

 

21R, 29A, 31, 61 Norana Avenue, Favona

Norana Avenue Reserve is a public reserve owned operated by the Manukau City Council, located directly south of Pikes Point, on the southern shore of the Mangere Inlet. The main current use is sports. Manukau City Council expanded the reserve so that in 2009 it was just over 300m long.

There is 5ha of sportfields on the West end of the reserve. The furthermost eastern area (now separated from the sportfields by 49/51 Norana Ave) was home to the Auckland Softball Association but this was sold in around 2010 and they relocated to the North Shore.

A block of land at 49 and 51 Norana Ave was purchased by the Government of Samoa in 2009(?). Their intention was to develop staff housing for a new consulate they wished to establish in Mangere Town Centre.

Proximity to Auckland International Airport
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/documents/districtplanmanukau/maps/2b.pdf

Air field investigations
In 2009, the reserve was considered for airfield use (see link below) but this would have meant buying land from the Samoan Consulate (they tried but were refused) so the idea was ditched.
http://www.airparkstrust.org.nz/index.php?page=norana-reserve

As part of this consideration, investigations into noise and airspace requirements were made
http://www.airparkstrust.org.nz/index.php?page=norana-airspace

Consent (?) for a new change room/club room facility in the park approved in 2010
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/SiteCollectionDocuments/aboutcouncil/localboards/mangereotahuhulocalboard/meetings/mangereotahuhulbag20120926.pdf
DOC land inventory including land around Norana Park:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/documents/about-doc/role/policies-and-plans/auckland-cms/cms-volume-3-pages-201-250.pdf
Problems with tire dumping in the area
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/manukau-courier/5665851/Residents-just-plain-tyred

Auckland Stadium
Mangere inlet was briefly considered as a site for the new sports stadium (2010): http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10407571

Favona

- fertile land, gardening/farming

Favona is an industry-dominated suburb of Auckland, and is part of the larger Mangere area.
The area has a long history of habitation, due to its fertile lands, a productive harbour, and proximity to the Manukau-Tamaki isthmus. Māori of Ngāti Whātua were the inhabitants until they were supplanted by European farmers in the 19th century.
The development of market gardening brought more people into the area and the land remained used in this way until the 1960s when housing developments were created to service Auckland's growing population and industry in nearby.
Some areas of Favona also historically had large areas of greenhouses, such as for tomato production (some of which remain in Norana Ave).
The area is one is of relative poverty and until 2005 had one of New Zealand's largest trailer parks. Next to Norana Park is the national distribution headquarters for Progressive Enterprises.