the known reimagined: shadow as a means for engagement

hayley owens

the known reimagined shadow as a means for engagement

This digital document contains four books: search, site + research, and two books on the project.

hayley owens

the known reimagined shadow as a means for engagement

book one | search

to mom, dad, rakitha, I am grounded knowing that in my obsessive pursuit of perfection you love me as I am.

1

acknowledgments

paul emmons

aki ishida

donna dunay

This thesis builds upon the questions great teachers have posed to me. Thoughtful, kind listeners, they have empowered me to hear and pursue my own inquiries. It has been a pleasure to learn from you.

Thank you to the landscape architecture faculty for the time and passion given in discussions of this project.

2

3

table of contents

book one | search preface ................................................ 5 light and perception ........................... 7 the illuminated room ........................ 13 the darkened room ........................... 15 light and shadow:

studies ................................ 19

encounters ......................... 25

undergraduate thesis documentation | hayley owens virginia tech school of architecture + design bachelor of architecture | august 2019 advisor | aki ishida

4

5

preface

preface

This study is rooted in a keen observational relationship with the world. It follows in Goethe’s tradition: “Every object, wellcontemplated, creates an organ of perception in us.”1 This sensitivity leads me out on cold winter nights to look at the stars and stay up too late walking from room-to-room in candle light.

This is in contrast to a general distraction and numbness that are symptoms of a great disconnect from ourselves, each other, and this planet. We take part in a culture averse to vulnerability and in desperate need of empathy.

Within this chaos there are, and will always be, moments of connection. They are profound and engage a place of vulnerability that lies within curiosity. The quiet act of noticing touches the sublime.

Through the transformative properties of light, I question, how can architecture foster a more sensitive and active relationship with the world?

“From beauty, Wonder ...

Wonder is the closest intouchness with your intuitive.”2 Louis Kahn

6

light and perception

Light animates the elements that make up the world. Since the mind is an essential part of processing the information that the eyes collect, seeing is a creative process.3 A change in lighting brings associated attitudes that have an effect on the human spirit. A place for expression and a place for reflection can have the same volumetric form, but become different places through a change in lighting. Humans associate place with the mood that is inspired by an emotional response. Peter Zumthor describes atmosphere as, “[perceived] through our emotional sensibility — a form of perception that works incredibly quickly.”4 Immediately, the inhabitant of a space — using their known associations — has a particular perception of a place.

The Cenotaph for Issac Newton is imagined in a series of drawings depicting spaces of the sublime. Boullée facilitates a direct sense of connection to the vastness of the solar system by recreating the night sky within the great domed space. The stars and planets are bright points in the darkness — lit by the sunlight outside. James Turrell points out that by defining enclosure to have inhabitants perceive the world in a particular way, the concept of the room takes on the principles of Plato’s allegory of the cave.5 Plato’s story constructs a space where prisoners have been constrained their whole life to only see the shadow play projected on the wall in front of them. Their reality is created by a fire burning behind them and the passing of their captors and objects in front of the flames. The prisoners perceive their world entirely of shadows.6 Turrell sees his own work with light as such a facilitation of perception: “… I look at buildings as a perceptual construct, literally that which forms perception.”7 The building is a tool that can help reshape the inhabitants’ understanding of the world.

A space of shadows is an active space. Kahn, concerned with atmospheres fostering the silence of light, avoided creating shadows. His close colleague, August Komendant, wrote of their work that, “Shadows, regardless of how beautiful in “spaces of

7

search / light and perception

received

Cenotaph for Issac Newton | Étienne-Louis BoullÊe Light enters the refined dome making small circles on the floor. A smoldering fire makes the passage of light apparent in the haze.

Hardly casting a shadow in the darkness, the spectator reflects by the fire and watches the shadows move slowly with the sun.

8

projected

Allegory of the Cave | Plato A dancing fire casts shadows onto the rough cave walls. The inhabitant instantly becomes a storyteller conscious of the shadow that they dictate. The shadows morph with the human urge to create and a drama is born using the tools available to the performer.

9

search / light and perception

silence,” should be avoided because they arouse questions.”8 Others recognized the ability for a play of shadow to create a reflective mental state. Environmental phsycologists, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, studied spaces that facilitated mental restoration, coining the term “quiet fascination” to describe, “[actions or observations that] do not totally dominate one’s thoughts. They permit reflection; they make it possible to find out what is on one’s mind.”9 These moments of observation are interesting enough to engage the viewer’s mind, but not so distracting to contribute to mental stress. This passive engagement occurs when watching snow fall, leaves rustle in the wind, or the morphing form of a fire. The play of shadow across a surface is a particular kind of quiet fascination. By its nature, it involves known things taking new forms. It actively asks questions. Where is the light source? What is the object seen in shadow? Contemplation of a shadow reveals information embedded in light.

june 11:30 am

Shadows of trees are cast by the mid-day sun onto half of the memorial statuary. These two different conditions evoke contrasting emotional responses.

10

11

oct. 31, 4:50 pm

nov. 2, 4:50 pm

oct. 31, 9:30 pm

nov. 17, 5:00 pm

search / light and perception

Architecture serves as a framework to understand change.

It can be a place of consistent darkness to reveal light, an understood surface to reflect color, or a measure to notice the passage of time. The inevitable change from night to day, the weather, seasons, and human intervention make any room an instrument for perceiving the conditions of the surrounding world. A room that is made to nurture the inhabitant’s active mental participation in these conditions is a finely tuned device for awareness.

outside looking out

inside looking out

cowgill hall

Repeated photographs of Cowgill hall reveal how architecture communicates changes in light and how this can transform the relationship of interior and exterior.

12

Stair at Moss Arts Center projecting light into the night. Public extreme.

Apartment curtains drawn. Inactive facade.

13

search / the illuminated room

Door closed. Suggestive.

the illuminated room | viewed from outside

The exposure of different people to each other produces thriving, diverse communities. Communities need to have spaces where members can encounter others that are different from themselves over time. These spaces are neutral and do not force the occupants to give up too much of their private selves.

It allows them to feel safe by choosing how vulnerable they want to be with strangers. In the urban space, this begins with public relationships made on the street.10 At night, activity retreats to the interiors of buildings. Using electric light, interior spaces are illuminated past day-lit hours communicating private, inner activity to the outside world. In this condition the occupant is extremely vulnerable. Individuals’ most intimate moments are carried out in the warm light of their homes. Their windows, made opaque by reflection, become an uncertain plane for the inhabitant. They cannot see out — just a searching reflection.

There is a heightened awareness of the self. The passerby on the street has the delight of looking into the lighted rooms.

The scene of the family enjoying dinner. The empty, but highly decorated, living room. The moment the lamp shuts off when the reader is done. The click can be heard despite the boundary of glass. At the occupant’s most vulnerable is when the outsider feels most connected.

Light is the activator of this story. Through contrast of light and dark, these brilliant moments are projected to the outside world. Still, the vulnerable occupant is uncomfortable with the outside gaze. Blinds and drapes serve to indicate only the perception of occupation while inhibiting the recognition of form and action that is so delightful. Designing the aperture to utilize the nature of shadow — the obscurity of a distorted silhouette — can give the occupant a sense of anonymity and privacy (and confidence!) in the form they project out to the street. This creates a more interesting and connected street scape. The inhabitant is conscious of their performance which intensifies their relationship with the outsider while the passerby has a chance to ponder the life existing inside. This opportunity to foster empathy and a sense of community cannot be ignored.

14

A car reverses outside of the living room.

15

search / the darkened room

the darkened room | viewed from within

The room houses the physical manifestation of the self. Objects catch the light reflecting desire. Morning light moves slowly casting shadows in unison. That which is most beloved is gazed at and touched often. Bodies positioned, objects shifted, to create a familiar, most intimate, landscape.

In darkness this world is transformed. Through the window, the light of the street lamp projects shadows of the windowsill’s inhabitants onto the wall. The headlights of a passing car create a wash of light defining the perimeter of the room. The lit candle enlarges and distorts the dark desk lamp. Its rigid stem oscillates with the waving flame. Darkness is essential to create the condition that changes an object’s original association to the spectator. The flood of information created by moments of light within darkness creates an intense focus. Schivelbusch writes, analyzing the experience of the cinema, “the spectator sitting in the dark and looking at an illuminated image gives it his whole attention…every lighted image is experienced as a liberation from the dark.”11 Schivelbusch calls this singular focus towards a light in darkness the “visual tunnel.”12 Additionally, there is an ambiguity created in darkness that opens the mind to other possibilities. Pallasmaa adds In the Eyes of the Skin, “deep shadows and darkness are essential, because they dim the sharpness of vision, make depth and distance ambiguous, and invite unconscious peripheral vision and tactile fantasy.”13 In these conditions, the mind opens up to weave new narratives that make sense of strange shadows and the origination of the light.

The reconciliation of unassociated, simultaneous events gives rise to interesting, cohesive, narratives. The story renews continuously as the play of shadow changes. It is mesmerizing -impossible to catch a still mental image in the fleeting nature of the event. The imagination is entranced as logic and absurdity reconcile to reveal new insight about the known world. Proust explores the experience of this kind of transformation from the

16

Tree branches and plants in the windowsill are projected by street lamps.

The occupant moves through their bedroom turned jungle.

A lit candle focuses the room.

17

search / the darkened room

perspective of a young boy in his bedroom. A rotating lamp stenciled with images of the knight, Golo, imposes an unrelated narrative onto the familiar landscape of the room: If the lantern were moved I could still distinguish Golo’s horse advancing across the window-curtains, swelling out with their curves and diving into their folds. The body of Golo himself, being of the same supernatural substance as his steed’s, overcame all material obstacles – everything that seemed to bar his way – by taking each as it might be a skeleton and embodying it in himself: the door-handle, for instance, over which, adapting itself at once, would float invincibly his red cloak or his pale face, never losing its nobility or its melancholy, never showing any sign of trouble at such a transubstantiation.

Such a vivid narrative invites the spectator into a new perspective. In this story, the boy is troubled by a loss of his sense of identity embedded in the room as this new narrative forms. Proust continues: But I cannot express the discomfort I felt at such an intrusion of mystery and beauty into a room which I had succeeded in filling with my own personality until I thought no more of the room than of myself. The anaesthetic effect of custom being destroyed, I would begin to think and to feel very melancholy things. The door-handle of my room, which was different to me from all the other doorhandles in the world…it was now an astral body for Golo.14 The personal account within this passage suggests an opportunity for architecture to reinterpret existing conditions to establish new narratives for the inhabitant. Re-presenting the everyday evokes curiosity and imagination, creating an active relationship between spectators and their immediate and distant surroundings. The space created in the ambiguity of darkness raises opportunity to question assumptions.

18

light and shadow | studies + encounters

19

search / light and shadow / studies

object of familiarity, you are strange smooth wood suddenly sharp!

round to the hand the edge catches the light

20

static: viewer object context

changing: light source 21 search / light and shadow / studies

object

1

Light overhead edge highlighted shadow is accurate in size and shape

2

Light at angle contrast in volume shadow exaggerated

3

Light below horizon highlights edge ambient light of dusk

1

2

3 22

shadow

form-giving context light source

viewer object

23

search / light and shadow / studies

24

summer 10:00 am

Light reflects from the car window into west facing bedroom

west facing bedroom

Simple white gypsum board walls entertain the eye as they take on surrounding objects: the ceiling becomes a collection of branches and bright light, the walls, a collage of distant shadows unusually large and out of focus.

25

search / light and shadow / encounters

fall 12:00 am

Distant light reflects from the wet street into window

26

summer 5:00 pm

Evening sunlight reflects from a neighboring red brick building bringing red light into a north facing window.

27

search / light and shadow / encounters

28

september 11:00 am

Sunlight reflects off of glass projecting light onto the ground. Passersby experience the natural direction of their shadow switch as they walk through the reflected light.

29

search / light and shadow / encounters

30

september 6:00 pm

The setting sun casts orange-colored horizontal shadows.

31

search / light and shadow / encounters

32

without time or season

A darkened interior room with recessed lights outside of its windows receives layers of shadows from the multiple lights outside.

33

search / light and shadow / encounters

october 11:00 pm

A car comes over a hill. Its headlights project shadows in the alleyway that raise and lower as the car travels the arc of the curve.

34

drawing volume through shading

The axonometric and perspective drawings create a framework for representing depth. Seeing depth from a primal perspective uses the perception of shadow. “Casting shadows” was of special importance to communicate depth in the orthogonal viewpoints of analytique drawings of the Beaux Arts movement. Communicating volume through shading highlights the importance of a volume’s edge and the morphing of forms.

september 10:30 am

35

search / light and shadow / encounters

11:30 am 36

notes

1 Authur Zajonc, Catching the Light: The Entwined History of Light and the Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 205.

2 Louis Kahn and John Lobell, Between Silence and Light: Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn (Boulder: Shambhala, 2008), 10.

3

Zajonc, Catching the Light, 6.

4 Peter Zumthor, Architecture, 2006), 13.

Atmospheres

(Basel:

Birkhäuser

5 James Turrell, The Thingness of Light (Blacksburg: Architecture Edition, 2000), 4.

6 Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, The Collected Dialogues of Plato : Including the Letters (New York: Random House, 1963), 747.

7

James Turrell, The Thingness of Light, 4.

8 August Komendant, 18 Years with Architect Louis I. Kahn (Englewood: Aloray, 1975), 118.

9 Rachel Kaplan and Stephen Kaplan, With People in Mind : Design and Management of Everyday Nature (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998), 69.

10 Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Vintage Books, 1992), 62.

11 Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century (Berkley: The University of California Press, 1995), 221.

37

search / endnotes

12

Schivelbusch, Disenchanted Night, 221.

13 Juhani Pallasmaa, Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (Chichester: Wiley, 2012), 46.

14

Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way (Planet eBook, 2018), 13-14.

38

hayley owens

the known reimagined shadow as a means for engagement

book two | site + process

1

table of contents

book two | site + process abstract ................................................ 3 measure and perception ...................... 5 program ............................................ 11 master plan ........................................ 15 site model .......................................... 19

undergraduate thesis documentation | hayley owens virginia tech school of architecture + design bachelor of architecture | august 2019 advisor | aki ishida

2

3

abstract

Architecture dynamically receives and projects light, intrinsically connecting it to the rhythm of its immediate and distant surroundings. Resulting shadows are an interpretation of the objects, independent actors, and constants that, when made aware to occupants, convey information about the world. The viewer engages more intensely with the shadow than the object because finding meaning in its abstraction demands curiosity. As relationships between things are highlighted, the viewer experiences greater connection to the physical world.

This thesis argues, through the design of a sleep study and counseling center, that architecture’s role is to elevate these particular moments of moving light to become events. Rhythms within the everyday are activated to viewers to communicate larger truths.

These moments connect viewers to the natural cycle of the solar system, their bodies, and each other. The highly visible, naturalistic site located at the corner of a busy intersection requires sensitivity to boundaries.

This architectural thesis choreographs street lamps, cars, topography, and trees to collectively facilitate connection while respecting privacy.

4

Located on the undeveloped edge of a university campus characterized by parking lots, a busy intersection, and the sense of impending university expansion, the site is a surprising park of diverse trees and a meandering stream. The world around the site is characterized by human domination over nature -- graded slopes, concrete surfaces, electric lights, and a channelized and buried stream. The site is a refuge of darkness as the eroded earth sinks towards the stream. Dense, varied trees are boundaries dictating a nuanced relationship with the street.

measure, perception and the body

The experience of walking uphill on a path where the earth swells gently to support the pedestrian cannot be communicated with topography lines. The freedom of looking out at the expanding landscape feeling secure and sheltered in the dense foliage behind is not remembered in symbols. The textures and seasonal qualities of a site cannot be reduced to white paper and black lines. Subtle details are important in the perception of the landscape and the designer must be able to remember and record the experience of the site. How can means of measure embody the physical experience of the world?

5

site + process / measure and perception

“Walking is a subversive act that enables us to contemplate bodily connections within the built environment...

Walking connects us to earth; walking is a persistent characteristic of the human.�1 Ben Jacks

6

OR SF ICE

KR

D.

2050

45 20

0

4 20

S TOM CRE

PRICES

D.

FORK R

204

20

45

ST .

40

5

PR

GE R

ST AN

site + process / measure and perception

EK R D.

7

205

N WI OD GO HALL

20

perception

measure

2045

n

20

45

2040

Drawing on site allows for mistakes and assumptions to be made about the relationships being recorded. Within these errors of measure lies key details about the perception of place. The practiced observer draws a representation of their experience.

The eye and hand physically recognize each element recording it into the architect’s memory. Drawing is an important tool for embodying the perception of place in a landscape within the 27 mind.

Initial drawings of the site reveal the dynamic form of the creek. With an influx of water, the etchings of overflow come to life. Its expressive nature is in stark contrast to the channelized section up stream and the under ground tunnel that it enters as the creek runs under the university campus. This site is an opportunity for the community to engage and gather around a moment where their historic waterway is no longer contained by human constraints.

Interviewer: I’d like to talk about attention ... I was interested to read that you began to learn that attention without feeling is only a report. That there is more to attention than for it to matter in the way you want it to matter. Say something about that learning.

Mary Oliver: You need empathy with it rather than just reporting. Reporting is for field guides. And they’re great. They’re helpful. But that’s what they are. They’re not thought provokers. They don’t go anywhere. And I say somewhere that attention is the beginning of devotion, which I do believe. But that’s it. A lot of these things are said but can’t be explained. 2

28

29

45 20 0 4

8

30

31

21

26

25

22 20 19 18 17

27 26

25

23

24

21 13

12

14

24 23 41 42

9

37site + process / measure and perception

43 9

10

22

20 19

18

17

16

15

The variety of trees creates areas of distinct character. Groupings create outside rooms and private spaces, as well as icons within the expansive site.

Collage is a tool to spark memory of the site and communicate qualities not experienced in line drawings. As the design process continues offsite, the architect can consider the spacial contribution of the trees.

11

10

22

27

20 19 18 17

28

26

22

21 13 27 14 26

24

25

20 12 19 18 17

41 42

40 32 38 39

31

41 42

38

3

4

10

9 8 7 Dec. 21 4:30pm

40

Dec. 21 4:

39 6

5 35

6

43 10

9

6

34

5

8

7

33

14

11

43

37

30

12

23

29 37

13

24

25

23

31

21

5

36 3

2

4

2

1

1

Sept. 23 4:45 pm

Sept. 23 4:45 pm

ne 21 6:00 pm

5

4

3

40 12

site + process /program

(7)

12

43

11

8

42

41

39

38

40

11 11

00

:30pm :30pm

The architecture serves as points of departure and destination creating a path that helps the pedestrian become familiar with the place through walking. The independent rooms have different programs and periods of activity that choreograph the visitors’ movement through the course of the day. Walking through the landscape helps sensitize the visitor so that they will be more perceptive within the rooms. Elements experienced outside are reencountered within. These volumes also form collections that make outdoor rooms and visual destinations to maximize the sense of space on the site.

The existing site is characterized by an undulating plane of grass that makes the perception of the site seem smaller than it is in measure. The architectural interventions serve to create enclosing points that compliment existing natural forms.

39 39

38 38

55

44

33

88 (7) (7) 43 43

42 42

41 41

12

There is a conflict between the compressed perception of the site and its actual measure. To test the effect of architectural interventions in the landscape, the site and its surroundings were modeled at 3/32� = 1’. This scale gives a comprehensive understanding of such an extensive site while still allowing for detail.

In the construction of the model, the underside became a landscape of its own.

The moedel is an abstraction of the site.

The surrounding road and creek that passes underneath the roads and through the site are revealed as the main organizing elements. The necessary structural supports become a playful response.

13

site + process / model

14

d c

g

f

b

e

a

ordering system: natural topography; dominant program: public Conceiving the project as individual rooms within the landscape leaves many options to locate each room. Several versions of the site with program were laid out focusing on private and public paths and ajacent sensitive programs. These paths were modeled, walked on site, and taken up from the model to begin the process again.

15

site + process / master plan

g f d a b

c

e

ordering system: natural topography; dominant program: private

a waiting room b library c bath house d counseling

e pool f solarium g sleep study 16

g f d

b

c e

a

ordering systems: natural topography, sun path, contextual light concerns; dominant program: equal Paths responded to the topography of the site to create a meditative walking experience. The rhythm of their steps connects the pedestrian to their body while they observe elements of the site. In this sensitized state, the pedestrian encounters paths that make present seasonal solar light. The pedestrian encounters their own shadow in the landscape.

17

site + process / master plan

18

er ng

st.

sta

librarylibrary Sleep study participants stop to read the as the Sleep study participants stopatopoem read as a poem sun sets, flooding the roomthe with layered sun sets flooding room with shadows. layered shadows.

bath house + pool Before bed, sleep study participants walk to the bath house to connect with their bodies in the darkness. bath + pool The shaded pool is shared withhouse the community Before bed, sleep study participants walk the during thetoday. bath house to connect with their bodies in the darkness. The shaded pool is shared with the community during the day.

waiting room Counseling patients, sleep study waitingmembers room participants, and community Counseling patients, sleep study arrive and wait to receive their lamps in participants, members theand lightcommunity of the traffic signal. arrive and wait to receive their lamps in the light of the traffic signal.

19

site + process / site model

n pr

ic

es

fo

rk

rd .

bedrooms The light of the intersection fills the rooms, while the light of the room projectsbedrooms participants’ nightly routine to the street. Curtains wrap the room in darkness andintersection they rest. fills the rooms, while the light within The light of the the room projects participants’ nightly routine to the street.

Curtains wrap the room in darkness for a deep sleep. solarium + tea house Study participants dine by the creek in the tea house.

Nestled between trees, the surrounding buildings are open to the community to enjoy in all seasons. In the overcast winter days the full spectrum lamps become sources of much needed light. solarium + tea house Study participants dine by the creek in the tea house. Nestled between trees, the surrounding buildings are open to the community to enjoy in all seasons. In the overcast winter days the full spectrum lamps become sources of much needed light.

counseling offices Counselors and patients meet rooms receiving their surroundings in the light of the day. These rooms are conceived in an initial counseling offices finding shadows in overcast and bright light.

Counselors andstudy patients meetcontemplative rooms receiving their surroundings in the cluster of are rooms connects meandering path through light of the day.The These rooms conceived in to anainitial study finding quiet areas of the site tobright provide a meditative space for the patient contemplative shadows in overcast and light.

The cluster of rooms connects to a meandering path through quiet areas of the site to provide a and counselors. meditative space for the patients and counselors.

20

notes

1 Ben Jacks, “Reimagining Walking: Four Practices,” Journal of Architectural Education 57, no. 3 (2004): 5.

2 Mary Oliver, “Mary Oliver: Listening to the World.”

Interview by Krista Tippett. On Being, February 5, 2015.

21

site + process / endnotes

22

hayley owens

the known reimagined shadow as a means for engagement

book three | project

1

table of contents

book three | project room for the traffic signal ................... 3 passage .............................................. 17 room for the sun set .......................... 21 room for night activity ...................... 31

undergraduate thesis documentation | hayley owens virginia tech school of architecture + design bachelor of architecture | august 2019 advisor | aki ishida

2

room for the traffic signal | waiting room

3

project / room for the traffic signal

4

5

project / room for the traffic signal

A cut is made through the site. Not apparent to the immediate eye, buildings and objects are organized to create a clear passage for an invisible vector of light. The light emitted by the traffic signal spreads infinitely until it strikes a surface that interrupts its trajectory. The light, invisible in the day, is made visible in the darkened waiting room. In order to see the information it holds, the viewer is removed from the context that informs it.

The room holds a compressed transect of the site’s activity. transect an analytical experiential/cultural tool to understand a place. It is easily observed by walking.

6

7

project / room for the traffic signal

The vector of light indiscriminately collects all information that it encounters. Though unrelated, the recognizable rhythm of the traffic signal also holds the rhythm of the site and program.

Traffic continues uninterrupted while the light violently reflects off of the disturbed water of the pool. Someone has jumped in!

Unknowingly pedestrians stroll through this action and momentarily halt its passage. Within the room, viewers await their own participation in this performance.

8

m

5p 3

9

project / room for the traffic signal

su m

m

um

s

er

8a

m

5 pm

wint

er

2

8 am winter

2

m

m

er

3

12 p

m su

mm

12

er

pm r te

in w

1

1

The counseling and sleep study program run on opposing schedules.

Counselors arrive for work at 8:00 am while study participants leave.

The work day ends at 5:00 pm and counselors pass arriving sleep study participants. The entrance sequence negotiates seasonal change to create possibilities for the pedestrian to see their shadow as they walk the ramp cutting into the earth.

10

3

1

2

11

project / room for the traffic signal

...light from the street lamp reflects off of the community pool to spread at an angle on the ceiling of the waiting room. The rhythm of green, yellow, red, is intermittently extinguished by the distant passerby. The changing, rippling light tells of the breeze or a bathing bird... ...sunlight reflected into the room projects shadows of passersby onto the back wall. The position of the shadows change over the course of the day as the sun moves... ...occupants leave the lamp tower and ascend to ground level leaving the electric light for the conditions of the site. Electric lights project their shadow onto the screen seen within the room...

1

The ability to make careful observations in the waiting room is cultivated by the sequence of turns and developing darkness that removes the inhabitant from the site. Unknown moments within the site are presented in shadow to the occupant. Use over time will reveal the actions and elements at play that create the mysterious collage.

By initially shrouding the cause of the effects within the room, the shadows raise questions that ask the visitor to pay closer attention when walking through the site. They will notice unseen ordering systems.

12

1

The building begins as a long open-air passage that gradually gets darker. As the visitor steps under the roof, they receive a direct view of the trees and paths beyond the building.

13

project / room for the traffic signal

2

At the end of a dark hall marked by circular skylights, the visitor turns and is greeted by reception. The light emanating from the lamp room is seen beyond in contrast to the darkness of the waiting room.

14

3

The eyes must adjust further to pick up the nuances of light in the room. The visitor waits, catching flickers of movement in the light as reception retrieves a lamp and lets the counselors know of the patient’s arrival.

15

project / room for the traffic signal

4

The visitor exits the room towards the luminous light of the tower seen around the corner. They walk under the tower gazing up to see the lamps above. Receiving their lamp from the receptionist, they climb up the ramp and back outside to participate in the choreography of the site.

16

17

project / passage

18

“I have never been so much myself… as in journeys that I made alone and on foot”1 Jean-Jacques Rousseau

19

project / passage

The juxtaposition of a clean, frosted glass wall with the strong textural experience of the dense trees intensifies the experience of both. These trees make a strong boundary for the site. The crisp line of the translucent wall serves to protect anonymity while highlighting the movement of passersby on either side of the wall.

20

21

project / room for the sunset

room for the sunset | library

22

summer

winter

An adjacent building blocks the light of the sunset on the site in the winter. A room at the top of the tower prolongs the time that the sunset can be experienced in this season. A white wall spans the height of the tower facing the street. As the shadow of the building ascends the tower, the setting sun is measured against it -- made upright and apparent to those waiting at the intersection.

23

project / room for the sunset

24

25

project / room for the sunset

26

A series of screens divide the room into reading niches. The screens catch shadows projected horizontally while allowing some light to penetrate beyond. People, books, and the rectilinear frames that hold them layer together creating shadows with great depth.

During the day circular skylights allow light to penetrate the space with distinct shadows. The movement of the sun over the course of the day is made more present in the room as the shadows fold across the screens moving from plane to plane.

27

project / room for the sunset

5:08 pm winter solstice 6:17 pm equinox

n 28

The skylights have an added layer of information that recognizes the change of the height of the sun, measured as the azimuth, in the different seasons. The skylights at the north of the building project perfect circles on ground in the summer, while those at the south of the building project perfect circles onto the building’s north wall at the winter solstice. In this way, the building oscillates between the complete forms projected to communicate information about this place’s relationship to the sun in particular seasons.

12 pm

winter solstice

1 pm equinox 12 pm

summer solstice

sunset orthogonal shadows pass through planes 29

project / room for the sunset

“For a few moments, we perceive ourselves perceiving.� 2 - Lawrence Weschler 30

room for night activity | bedroom

31

project / room for night activity

32

su

mm

er

sol

stic

e

equinox

sunset

The imposed geometry of the triangle references the most extreme shadows cast at sunset to create space for the full swing of movement over the year. As the seasons change, the shadow cast by the visitor morphs within this space creating different opportunities for path. This imposition contrasts with the paths leading to the intersection that both move with the topography and engage the visitor with the trees.

33

project / room for night activity / sunset intersection

ce

lsti

wi

n

so ter

nte

wi

et

ns

u rs

3 2

1

n

5 10

20

30

40

34

1

Emerging from the tree lined path, the setting sunlight projects the visitor’s shadow onto the smooth wall.

2

Turning the corner, the shadow elongates, stretching across the ground. The gravel creates an undefined path allowing the visitor to naturally follow the slope of the earth.

The person must confront their shadow in the vastness of the clearly defined geometry.

35

project / room for night activity / sunset intersection

3

The path leaving the intersection passes between sculptural trees intimately reengaging the order of the site.

36

37

project / room for night activity / collection

Using light, a collection of rooms have the potential to communicate change of activity over time. A group of similar units acts as a measure to read the differences within them. The view from the outside is limited to a single window of distorted shadows creating clear ideas about the variety of human occupation within.

The rooms gather around a courtyard filled with dense bushes that dampen the light.

Each room is offset offering a sheltered porch for each unit.

The corner by the unit’s door curves to create thin vertical openings emitting slices of light to establish occupancy to the courtyard.

38

“Everything that casts a light sees�3 Gaston Bachelard

39

project / room for night activity / sketches

40

a

The experience of the self enlarged and distorted by a light source creates an unusual self-consciousness of physical mass. The typical experience with selfobservation is through reflection or directly looking at the hands and feet as they engage the world. The former elicits a distracted, critical response while the latter sees the body as disassociated parts.

The observation of the shadow sees the body as an undifferentiated whole. It is simultaneously familiar and strange.

The room offers limited views of this anonymous and deeply personal shadow figure. It is an emissary for the street.

41

project / room for night activity / projection

a-a

a

The aperture frames the projected shadow preventing a direct view into the room. The wall becomes a stage.

42

Between the bedrooms and the intersection a series of low walls mark the grading of the site. Oriented east-west, with sections of higher intersecting walls, they create a physical boundary while maintaining a visual connection to the site.

Planted with sunflowers, the walls act as a regular measure to compare the rotating flowers’ faces as they track the sun.

The passerby is invited to engage. Near the bedrooms facing the dark interior of the site, the walls are level with the grass giving measure to the activity in the rooms as lamps are lowered and occupants move through the space.

43

project / room for night activity / projection

44

45

project / room for night activity / lamp

As day turns into night, the quality of light emitted from electric sources also changes. The lowered lamp grows warm and dims to allow the eyes to adjust for sleep. The lamp’s two shades slowly rotate in the stirred air casting shadows within or a spotlight on the wall.

46

47

project / room for night activity / lamp

“Do you want to be calm? Breathe softly in front of the delicate flame as it performs its work of illuminating.�4 Gaston Bachelard

48

turning car

Though located at a busy intersection, only two moments of turning light reach the room. These turning cars become events of light in the room making the activity of the surroundings a means of measuring the passage of time. The room is a machine to reveal the action of turning from this flash of light.

49

project / room for night activity / turning car

n

5 10

20

30

40

50

a

b

51

project / room for night activity / turning car

52

18˚ 22˚ 29˚

53

project / room for night activity / turning car

The louvers separate the light that is emitted from the turning car so that as the source rotates certain degrees are let into the room to create a controlled wash of light across the wall. This has the effect of slowing down this moment which would otherwise be seen as a flash of light due to the distance of the light source. A curtain surrounds the room so that when the participant is ready for sleep they can choose to close the sheer curtain and then the velvet one for complete darkness.

The turning light also enters the courtyard to play across the dense bushes in the darkness created by the cluster of rooms.

54

wall reci

a

55

project / room for night activity / turning car

occupant seen fr

skylight for sunset/sunrise

ives play of light

rom outside

passing car expressed within

b

The preliminary study model (a) and the site specific model (b) share elements that respond to the activity of the night. It is useful to compare the two to understand how the elements remain similar, but adjust for the context and program.

56

57

project / room for night activity / turning car study

n

preliminary study night activity 58

The late afternoon sun enters the room

59

project / room for night activity / sunrise

The morning light enters the skylight and reflects onto the back wall

60

sunrise The room, still wrapped in curtains closed the night before, grows brighter as the rising sun enters the skylight.

From the bed, the awakening occupant can see a shadow cast in the skylight.

A participant that comes for multiple stays will see the position of the shadow change over the seasons.

As the sun rises, a parabolic reflector under the eaves reflects the early morning sunlight onto the back wall to create a soft wash of light. As the room brightens, the occupant gets ready to leave for the day. On overcast days, they raise the hanging lamp for more light.

reflected ceiling plan

section of skylight in morning

61

project / room for night activity / sunrise

summer solstice 6:28 am

equinox

7:38 am winter solstice 8:00 am azimuth 4°

62

notes 1 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Les Confessions (2015), Gutenberg Project.

2 Ben Jacks, “Reimagining Walking: Four Practices,�

Journal of Architectural Education 57, no. 3 (2004): 8.

3

Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century (Berkley: The University of California Press, 1995), 221.

4 Gaston Bachelard, Die Poetik des Raumes (Munich, 1967), 48.

63

project / endnotes

64

hayley owens

the known reimagined shadow as a means for engagement

book four | project

1

table of contents

book four | sleep study room for darkness ............................... 3 the body in darkness ......................... 15 collection of light .............................. 17 room for day ...................................... 41

undergraduate thesis documentation | hayley owens virginia tech school of architecture + design bachelor of architecture | august 2019 advisor | aki ishida

2

room for darkness | bathhouse

3

project / room for darkness

4

“Sighting is a process of walking in which a casual walker intuitively understands the relationship around physical objects in the landscape… Sighting involves understanding location and alignment independent of measure.”1 Ben Jacks

5

project / room for darkness

Darkness seeps from the sunken creek. Street lamps and passing cars ring the site, but the density of trees and sloping earth creates a velvet darkness. A path cuts through the sunset intersection and follows the natural slope down to the bathhouse. Sleep study participants walk deeper into the site.

Looking through the branches, the stars are seen in the crisp night. The dirt path becomes raised, flat stones providing security above the saturated earth by the creek. Looking out, the pool reflects the star light. Returning to the bedroom, shadows from the rooms provide a desination point to look to as they walk up the hill.

In the day, the bathhouse is infrequently used by the study participants. The community is welcomed to enjoy the pool and reconnect to the frequently buried creek. Retaining walls on the slope hold basins of plants filtering the creek water to feed the pool. The solarium looks to these basins and the pool beyond inspiring a connection to natural systems.

6

solarium

a-a

b-b

c-c

d-d

e-e

Deciduous cypress trees surround the bathhouse and pool. The trees are dense, but lose their leaves seasonally, transforming the experience of the place. In the summer, the trees form a protected outdoor room for the pool, while in the winter the space is visually exposed making the bathhouse a warm refuge.

7

project / room for darkness

bedrooms library

bedrooms

sunset intersection

water filtration basins solarium

pool

b c

b c

d

d

e

e bath

a

waiting room

n

5 10

20

30

40

8

9

project / room for darkness

10

11

project / room for darkness

12

13

project / room for darkness

“The imagination and daydreaming are stimu­lated by dim light and shadow. In order to think clearly, the sharpness of vision has to be suppressed, for thoughts travel with an absentminded and unfocused gaze... The absent-minded gaze penetrates the surface of the physical image and focuses in infinity.”2 - Juhani Pallasmaa

A wooden envelope transitions the visitor from the shaded outdoor world, down a darkening hall, to a stone wall. This wall, first encountered in the hallway, invites the bather to place lit candles in its openings. The wall defines the bath.

Darkness and steam reveal the path of light that penetrates the room. The light catches the rising steam. A small window can be opened for direct connection to the creek outside.

14

the body in darkness

Vision is the dominate sense that architecture is designed for, but seldom does the architecture take advantage of the sensitivity of the eye as an organ. Bright, “well-lit,” and “good light” are seen as ideal spatial qualities as they help create a mental state of clarity and focus that increases productivity. This perspective narrows the experiences that can be evoked when the eye is stimulated differently. Palasmaa is a well known critic of this singular focus on the eye and he explains how it dominates over other senses: The eye is the organ of distance and separation, whereas touch is the sense of nearness, intimacy and affection. The eye surveys, controls and investigates, whereas touch approaches and caresses. During overpower­ing emotional experiences, we tend to close off the distancing sense of vision; we close the eyes when dreaming, listening to music, or caressing our beloved ones.3 Beyond excluding sight as a means to experience other senses, James Turell, a light artist, investigates the physical experience that can be created when the light is dimmed. He states, “We are made for twilight,” when explaining the significant change in the contracted daytime pupil versus in times of low lighting when it dilates to allow more light to enter.4 Dilated, the eye becomes vulnerable and sensitive. The body relaxes and becomes more responsive. Light becomes physical -- something that can be touched. This is a powerful experience. Turell warns: This is often a very intense seeing where you really do feel through your eyes. You may have experienced it by looking into the eyes of a lover. Just be sure that you have seen in low light before so that you can know whether it is actually love.5

15

project / room for darkness / the body in darkness

The stone wall creates a direct relationship between the occupant and the light source. The openings to place the candle become points of light emanating from a continuous surface in the bath. Radiating from a point, the light spreads into the space, contrasting with the parallel light coming from the sun during the day.

16

collection of light| solarium

17

project / collection of light

18

c

a

19

project / collection of light / rooms

The overcast and wet skies of a Blacksburg winter leave its residents yearning for sunlight. Human moods and feelings are affected by seasonal light changes. Exposure to the light emitted from the sun, known as full spectrum light, impacts physical and mental health positively.

The solarium is a gathering place for the community, counseling patients, and sleep study participants to take in this light either naturally or electrically.

In the winter, the buildings contrast with the outside.

People lounge next to full spectrum lamps given out in the waiting room and are surrounded by an indoor jungle of plants. As people come and go, the lamps change position offering an idea of activity to the world outside. In the summer, the collection of buildings and trees form outdoor rooms where people take in the dappled sunlight.

b

a

b

c

n

5 10

20

30

40

20

dense deciduous cypress

21

project / collection of light / trees

The solarium rooms are organized on the sloping bank of the creek in response to the density and canopies of existing trees. The architecture and trees form outdoor rooms that the occupants within can look out onto and occupy. The terraced roofs have clerestory windows showing the trees overhead to give occupants that are deeper inside the building a direct view to the foliage. Shadows of the trees shift throughout the day. Where the rooms are built into the slope, the roof angles become a plane of translucent glass displaying the shadows from the canopy above.

dense coniferous trees

deciduous trees with canopy above

weeping willows

n

5 10

20

30

40

22

bedro library

sunset intersection

solarium

pool

waiting room 23

project / collection of light / paths

bath

Community members walk from the waiting room with their lamps and cross the creek to arrive at a courtyard formed by the tea room and the adjacent solarium.

The rooms are accessed by a ramping path alongside the creek that becomes a covered walkway connected to the rooms.

ooms

A separate room up the slope from the creek is reserved for counseling patients to have a quiet space. It is connected to the grouping of rooms by a shared roof which covers the entrance. This room is connected to a secondary path that follows a leisurely, reflective route for counselors and patients to reconnect to their bodies and surroundings by moving through the landscape.

private path public path

solarium

private solarium

tea room

counseling offices

n

5 10

20

30

40

24

25

project / collection of light

An initial drawing of this area of the site documents the tree cover and topography by the creek and explores how it might be inhabited.

26

section a - a

27

project / collection of light

The rooms, fixed in their view towards the creek, hold a changing collection of people, plants, and lights. In sun lit days, the shadows of swaying trees and the activity of birds are cast onto the translucent glass abstracting this life to the occupant and passerby.

On overcast days the full spectrum light from the lamps is most needed. From the street through the bare winter landscape, changing collections of lamps can be discerned through the frosted glass.

28

29

project / collection of light

n

5

10

20

30

“I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day.”6 Mary Oliver

31

project / collection of light / inhabiting the creek

section b - b

People occupy the dry banks of the creek. The sunken landscape around the creek forms a natural room defined by the trees trunks and foliage above. The massing of the solarium gives privacy from the street.

32

reflected light viewed on ceiling of room

shadow of water on floor and wall of entryway

pm

project / collection of light / tea room

r3

33

te

over the course of a day, a slow and mesmerizing process to watch.

in

sun tea is made in water heated by the sun

w

The tea room is a space for community members and sleep study participants to gather and have meals.

Two walls define the room. The wall serving as a nursery for potted plants faces out to a courtyard formed by trees and buildings. The wall holding the jars of warming sun tea is the other side of the room. Skylights surround the glass wall allowing light to pass through and heat the tea throughout the day. In the afternoon, the sunlight casts shadows of the slowly moving steeping tea onto the darkness of the entryway.

sum

section c - c

mer

3 pm

er

m

m

su

n

8

am

34

35

project / collection of light / tea room

36

37

project / collection of light / tea room

38

39

project / collection of light

40

room for the day | counseling office study

41

project / room for the day

42

43

project / room for the day

The room for the day interprets the landscape through the changing shadows of different weather conditions. It intensifies the experience both an overcast landscape or a bright, sunny day. The room faces north. In the overcast condition, the single window views the darkness of the textured plants growing directly outside. The room is slightly sunken into the earth to view the details in this unfocused darkness.

On the sunny day, an aperture on the south side of the room projects the shadow of a tree into the room. The inhabitant closes a paper screen by the window to prevent glare from this light and focuses the occupant on the shadows that now move across it.

44

5 pm 4 pm

3 pm

summer solstice 8 pm

summer solstice 12 pm

12 pm equinox

2 pm

1 pm

n 45

project / room for the day

On bright days, the shadow moving through the room measures the passage of time. The occupant, observing the light entering and exiting the room experiences this as an event. The chimney performs as a gnoman, the vertical element of a sundial.

Memory marks the shadow assigning time to its position.

The human ordering system is imposed on the independent movement of the earth. The shadow of the chimney is present only during work hours, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.

The light and moving shadow of the trees through the static latticework gives an active experience of the room. Watching the shadows gives a moment of respite for the working inhabitant.

46

am

9 am summer

project / room for the day

r te

47

in

w

arrival

n

departure

The experience of encountering one’s shadow creates a new awareness of the self. As the pedestrian encounters themselves coming and going from the office, they become a gnoman.

When they repeatedly see their shadow in front of them coming to work and against the wall again when leaving, the pedestrian associates this everyday motion with shadow. The shadow marks the time and engenders a meaningful transition.

48

49

project / room for the day

The lattice of wood forms a second ceiling which creates a more enclosed space in the darkness of the overcast day. Gazing up into the layered wood, their collective shadows limit the visibility of the ceiling’s surface. The glimmer of gold leaf covering the cut ends catches the light entering from the north window, or an illuminated lamp. It becomes a place of reflection as the softening eye explores the articulation of the wood.

“...in the darkness of the innermost rooms of these huge buildings, to which sunlight never penetrates, with the gold leaf of a sliding door or screen will pick up a distant glimmer from the garden, then suddenly send forth an ethereal glow, a faint golden light cast into the enveloping darkness, like the glow upon the horizon at sunset… How in such a dark place, gold draws so much light to itself is a mystery to me.”7 Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

50

The warm color of the room offers warmth to contrast the gray, overcast sky. Several tests were done to understand the effect that the changing light conditions would have on the experience of shadow in the space. Of the samples used, those that contained some black created a more even shadow condition during an overcast day as they reflected less light.

The pink-gray color also contrasts the green of the outside world that the window frames. This intensifies the experience of the landscape.

51

project / room for the day

52

53

project / room for the day

The back wall of the room makes the approaching visitor simultaneously aware of the sun’s position in the sky and the occupation of the room. A module with a slightly angled edge is stacked so that this reveal catches the light of the sun and the texture is highlighted to the passerby. The light is reflected off of these edges from the afternoon through sunset making these times notable as they approach.

Light can also communicate human occupation of a space.

Here, the light of the fireplace emanates through the stacked logs alongside it and lights the exterior wall with a faint glow.

The firewood is stacked in the window to filter the sunlight and firelight passing through it. At the top of the stack, the rough wood transitions to become the refined lattice pieces of the ceiling. The shadow created by the firelight through the wood flickers and moves animating the objects that it will soon consume.

54

55

project / room for the day

In the darkness of the night, the light from the room projects outward. The landscape, that the room seeks to heighten and experience, is transformed by the light that distorts and reinterprets it in shadow.

56

notes

1 Ben Jacks, “Reimagining Walking: Four Practices,” Journal of Architectural Education 57, no. 3 (2004): 6.

2 Juhani Pallasmaa, Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (Chichester: Wiley, 2012), 46.

3

Juhani Pallasmaa, Eyes of the Skin, 46.

4 James Turrell, The Thingness of Light (Blacksburg: Architecture Edition, 2000), 2.

5

James Turrell, The Thingness of Light, 4.

6 Mary Oliver, excerpt from “The Summer Day” in House of Light (Boston: Beacon Press, 1992).

7 Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows (Sedgwick: Leete’s Island Books, 1977), 22.

57

project / endnotes

The final presentation of the work in the Pella Room.

58