Royal Flush
Stvanices Waterfall Casino
Copyright © 2014 Jos Poortman Eindhoven University of Technology Juliette Bekkering Sjef van Hoof All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form, without writte permission from the publishers. Released for architectural design studio ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exeption‘ University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Royal Flush
Stvanices Waterfall Casino
ROYAL FLUSH
CONTENT
44 PERCEPTION, MEMORY AND TRADITION 45 BALANCE 45 APPROACHING HETEROTOPIA 46 CONCLUSION HETEROTOPIA
7 INTRODUCTION
47 FRINGES AND HETEROTOPIA
49 OSTROV STVANICE
9 ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
51 OSTROV STVANICE
11 ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
53 HISTORY
12 ALDO ROSSI ‘A SCIENTIFIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY’
53 FLOODING
16 REM KOOLHAAS ‘DELIRIOUS NEW YORK’
55 BUILT-UNBUILT
20 RICHARD SENNETT ‘THE CRAFTSMAN’
55 INFRASTRUCTURE/ACCESSIBILITY
23 MIRROR
57 GREENSPACE
27 RESEARCH
57 ATMOSPHERE
28 RESEARCH 63 OSTROV STVANICE AS FRINGE 29 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
65 WHAT IS A CASINO?
30 RESEARCH METHOD
63 WHAT IS A CASINO?
31 WHAT IS A FRINGE?
69 CASE STUDIES
33 CASE STUDIES
83 CONCLUSION CASE STUDIES
34 CONEY ISLAND
84 INTERVIEWS
34 PARC DE LA VILETTE
87 LEARNING FROM VENTURI
35 PEDREGULHO HOUSING ESTATE
89 LEARNING FROM VENTURI
36 KOWLOON WALLED CITY
95 CONCLUSION
37 WALLED CITY OF SHIBAM
97 DESIGN
39 CONCLUSION CASE STUDIES
41 HETEROTOPIA
99 URBAN MASTERPLAN
42 MICHEL FOUCAULT’S ‘OF OTHER SPACES’
101 DESIGN 6
ROYAL FLUSH 103 FRINGE ELEMENTS 105 POSITION 107 POWER PLANT/DAM 108 CONCEPT 109 SCULPTURE 111 SCENOGRAPHY 127 STRUCTURE
129 CONCLUSION DESIGN
131 CONCLUSION 132 CONCLUSION
137 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
141 BIBLIOGRAPHY
7
ROYAL FLUSH
8
ROYAL FLUSH
INTRODUCTION ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’ is an architectural design studio, created as graduation studio within the boundaries of university master ‘Architecture, Building and Planning’ at the Technical University of Eindhoven; a studio that started in the winter of 2013. A group of thirteen students guided by two tutors began an investigation to the combination of two polarities namely the ‘retreat in nature’ and the ‘architecture of the city’. This investigation of retreat into nature in the very heart of the city would be done by researching the forgotten places and the fringe zones of the contemporary metropolis. The studio states that ‘The fringe zones and peripheral sites offer specific qualities and exceptional conditions that have to be explored and celebrated. The fringe offers a certain resistance towards known architectural solutions and demands new ideas and perspectives.’ The ambition of the studio is the creation of architecture, capable of celebrating fringe zones, maintaining them and preventing them from being swallowed by the encroaching urbanization. The specific project chosen for the first year of the studio’s existence is the location of the Stvanice Island in the riverbed of the Vltava River which meanders through the city centre of Prague, facing the rise and fall of the body of water, forming an annually reoccurring event in the city life. In order to do so, first, understanding of the term ‘fringe’ had to grow because a defined answer to the question: ‘What is a fringe?’ is not easily found. Therefore, a list of thirteen so called fringe situations was carefully selected to act as case studies, one for every student to be studied, covering different cultures and eras by examples spread out over the world. A list consisting of remarkable places that resembled to be fringes in the past or seeming to be at this present time. Second, besides these thirteen fringe case studies, the Stvancie Island was also treated as case study, but explored in a more elaborated form to discover, when present, its unique, fringe qualities. And third, the functionality of ‘contemplation’, a functionality judged as suitable for a fringe location, was researched to become a possible enrichment of a function which was to be chosen as foundation of the ‘fringe celebrating’ architecture. All the information gathered during the above mentioned group process regarding the fringe case studies, the location analyses and the contemplation analyses, was bound in a book named ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’, product of the so called ‘M3’ phase of architectural design studio ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’. This document, a subsequent one to the previously mentioned book, describing the so called ‘M4’ phase of the studio, is one of thirteen individual pieces, all continuing the research of previously mentioned M3 phase, using its book ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’ as take-off for the elaboration of an architectural design, a building proving its capability of both exploring and celebrating the fringe of the Stvanice Island. Both the process leading to a final design and a statement about the fringe phenomenon will be presented in this document while referring to architectural theories, case studies and information found during the previous phase of the research process (‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’). The design, of which its concept, appearance and creation will be elaborated and explained, could be seen as the translation, the tangible body of this statement, forming the finalizing conclusion of this document.
9
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
Royal Flush
Stvanices Waterfall Casino
ROYAL FLUSH
IMAGES 3 BOOKS FRONT
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
12
ROYAL FLUSH
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
In order to formulate a position respected to the design task and create a direction for the upcoming design process, three books (‘A Scientific Autobiography’ by Aldo Rossi, ‘Delirious New York’ by Rem Koolhaas and ‘The Craftsman’ by Richard Sennett) were analysed of which each represents a status in the contemporary debate on Architecture. The interpretation and analyses of these three books, captured in an essay, were crucial for the start of the individual process since they revealed a perspective through which the complete individual assignment was perceived. While studying these three quite different books, a strong connection between them revealed itself in the phenomenon of ‘memory’. Although used in diverse ways, all three books show strong references to memory which is why this specific term was chosen as mean to perceive the three stories about architecture. In this particular case, the quotes from the three books are mentioned quite extensively because personally I found it very important that the ‘soul’ of the three books was represented in the essay. The so called ‘story’ that is told, becomes brighter when more context is added and in order to taste the atmosphere of these told stories, the writing styles of its creators, the tools of the storytellers need to be shown. The essay is enriched by these extensive quotes, merging with the interpretations surrounding them, but for those who fear long stories, the concluding paragraphs at the end of each chapter combined with the final chapter of this text might be sufficient for the understanding of the complete essays meaning.
13
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
ROYAL FLUSH
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY The role of memory in creating and perceiving architectural experiences Our history carries great responsibility in the foundation of who we truly are. Without our history, we wouldn’t find ourselves in this particular place, because the past brought us to where we are standing right now in the present. This is nothing new, somewhere in our minds we all know this indeed, but understanding of our personal history, being led by our active memories, helps each of us understanding who we are, this unique personality everyone is. Like understanding national history gives great insight in the identity of a nation and the origin of its own culture, standards and rules. But unlike the collectiveness of a nations identity - coming from its collective, historical memories - personal identity, partly a result of personal memories has an individual character. Your own memories carry great responsibility in the foundation of who you truly are. Just as this uniqueness of personal memory and personality, the way of designing and perceiving for architects is unique and has this similar individual character. Every architect creates architecture in his/her own way because personality has an essential share in designing. Besides creation, every architect, as every person in general, has a personal, unique perception of everything. In the case of an architect, both his/her own work, architectural design, and the work of others, architectural experiences, are perceived in a unique way, because of this personality. And if the uniqueness and individual character of personality comes partly from memories of this personality and the uniqueness of architectural design and perception while experiencing is strongly related to the individual person, architecture and memory might be related in an interesting way. This is why the relation between creation and perception of architectural experiences and personal memories is a relation worth exploring and querying. To find this possible relation between architecture and memory, three visions will be explored, and summarized starting with Aldo Rossi’s point of view as mentioned in his book ‘A Scientific Autobiography’ followed by Rem Koolhaas’ opinion from his book ‘Delirious New York’ and concluding with Richard Sennett’s way of thinking shown in his book ‘The Craftsman’. Exploring and summarizing these three visions might give an idea about the relation between the creation and perception of architectural experiences and personal memories, but moreover, if possible, the visions will be compared to each other so each of these three visions might possibly act as a mirror and critique for the other two, clearly showing different angles which could help the establishment of a personal opinion about this relation.
ALDO ROSSI ‘A SCIENTIFIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY’ Of course, Aldo Rossi’s autobiography is, as all autobiographies are, a very personal story in which personal interests and motivations are explained. In the search for a relation between architecture and memory this book provides lots of information, because in his way of describing both his designing and experiencing of architecture Rossi refers a lot to his personal memories, showing countless examples of feelings, atmospheres, people and architecture from his past being an inspiration, motivation and passion for him as both a person and an architect. At the very beginning of his autobiography Rossi mentions his memories of summer, in this particular case his sense that every summer seemed to be his last one and that this sense of “statis without evolution” may explain many of his projects, moreover he even states that to understand and explain his architecture, he “must run ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
14
ROYAL FLUSH
through things and impressions, must again describe them, or find a way to do so.” 1 Besides using memory as explanation tool of his architecture, this ‘looking back in time’ is also pointing out his awareness of development. Rossi describes the reading of the book ‘Apparecchio alla morte’ by Alfonso dei Liguori and that this “strange book, which I still recall in many images,…….. it was an instrument”. There was a moment in time from which he came to “regard architecture as the instrument which permits the unfolding of a thing. I must say that over the years, this awareness has increased my interest in my craft, especially my latest projects, where I have tried to propose buildings which, so to speak, are vehicles for events…...I can say now that they achieve a silence which is different from the purism I had striven for in my early designs, where I was concerned primarily with light, walls, shadows, openings. I have realized that it is impossible to recreate an atmosphere.” 2 Rossi’s book is full of these ‘memory examples’ in which he refers to his personal history, explaining where his vision of architecture was founded and how it developed to its final form, fully aware of the impact particular historical moments had on his life. Another example of this awareness is mentioned when Rossi speaks about his believe that “……place and time are the first conditions of architecture and hence the most difficult. I have long had an interest in modern architecture, but I think that perhaps this style of architecture is linked in my mind with some buildings of my childhood – a villa or a residential block at Belo Horizonte in Brazil. This is a strange memory or experience of modern architecture, but it is also always accompanied by the awareness that aspects of reality can only be apprehended one at a time; I mean that rationality or the smallest degree of lucidity permits an analysis of what is certainly reality’s most fascinating aspect: the inexpressible.” 3 Rossi had to explain parts of his memory to make his book understandable. He states that his recalling of the effect that others “produced in me when I was a boy” is certainly unavoidable, “Precisely, because I am writing an autobiography of my projects which is mingled with my personal history”. 4 Architecture he has seen in different places of the world, like Filarete’s Colum at the Grand Canal in Venice and the Roman ruins at Budapest for example, compared to each other made him rediscover different architectural elements, like the column for example, which first was a “…..relic of time, in its absolute formal purity, has always seemed to me a symbol of architecture consumed by the life which surrounds it”, and turned into “…...one possible fragment of a thousand other buildings”. 5 So his personal history brought in awareness by personal memory created a development in his vision about architecture and his way of creating it. In experiencing architecture, besides the shaping of his vision, Rossi also refers to his previous experiences. For instance in the example of the Lichthof of the University of Zurich, “…..whose roof resembles, unless I am mistaken, the pyramidal roof of the Kunsthaus.” Normally, this Lichthof is full of students making Rossi see the university “as a bazaar, teeming with life, as a public building or ancient bath.” But at the specific time photographer Heinrich Helfenstein took photographs of the interior, the students were celebrating holiday and the photographs showed “the luminous court and the aerial galleries are absolutely empty, the building is uninhabited, and it is even difficult to comprehend how it might be inhabited……did I clearly see the palm trees in the glass-walled court,………I connected the University with the Invernadero at Barcelona and with the gardens at Seville and Ferrara, where I experience a peace that is nearly complete. But in depicting the two palms, the photographs reminded me of the façade of the Hotel Due Palme on Lame M., where I spend some of my time; the façade of the hotel constituted 1 Rossi, A. (1981), p. 1. 2 Ibid., p. 5. 3 ibid, p. 52. 4 Ibid., p. 6. 5 Ibid, p. 6.
15
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
ROYAL FLUSH
anew a sensitive manifestation of architecture, one that went beyond any stylistic or technical reference.” 6 The memory of architectural experiences didn’t just influence his new experiences of architecture, but also guided him in his architectural design. Rossi describes his experience with the convent of Santa Clara at Santiago de Compostela. His analysis show inter alia “A diffuse luminosity pervades the large room, where the figures lose themselves as in a piazza. The practice of carrying naturalism to its extreme consequences leads to a kind of metaphysics of the object; things, old people’s bodies, light, a cold ambience – all are offered through a kind of observation that seems distant. Yet this emotionless distance is precisely the deathly air of the poorhouse. When I was designing the cemetery at Modena, I constantly thought about this hospice, and the light which traces precise bands on that section of the painting is the same as that which passes through the window of this project.” 7 The example of Santa Clara is one of the many Rossi gives, showing his awareness of architectural analysis and observations of in the past “……has remained my most important formal education; for observation later becomes transformed into memory. Now I seem to see all the things I have observed arranged like tools in a neat row; they are aligned as in a botanical chart, or a catalogue, or a dictionary. But this catalogue, lying somewhere between imagination and memory, is not neutral; it always reappears in several objects and constitutes their deformation and, in some way, their evolution.” 8 (crafstman) It seems that for Aldo Rossi, history is part of his most important formal education and memory is involved in the process of applying and practising this education. In his autobiography, Rossi explains besides his own memories also the memory of architecture itself! Buildings with memories of which the theatre is an often used example in which he “…….realized as much while looking at empty theaters as if they were buildings abandoned forever, even though this abandonment in reality is often briefer than the length of a day. Still, this brief abandonment is so burdened with memory that it creates the theater.” 9 Architecture so full of memory that it even creates the architecture, enriches the experience of a building. Rossi is using the example of a theatre, the ‘Little Scientific Theater’ in particular of which he explains after “…..a beautiful dedication” by Anthony Vidler who has given Rossi a copy of Frances Yates’s ‘Theatre of the World’: “For A., from the theatre of memory to the theatre of science”, that indeed “Certainly the Little Scientific Theater was the theater of memory, but memory in the sense of repetition: this was its magic.” 10 All these performances in the building, followed by abandonment over and over again, formed the memories of the theatre. Memory is playing such a great and important role in the designs of Rossi, that it seems almost like he is designing for memory instead of using it as an instrument. “Likewise in my projects, repetition, collage, the displacement of an element from one design to another, always places me before another potential project which I would like to do but which is also a memory of some other thing.” 11 Rossi’s memory tells him about an experience of architecture and almost instructs him obsessively to create the same feeling again in his own architecture like in his “……project for the villa is perhaps an attempt to find again this architecture which filters that distinctive light, that evening coolness, those shadows of a summer afternoon. 6 Rossi, A. (1981), p. 8-11. 7 Ibid., p. 12. 8 Ibid., p. 23. 9 Ibid., p. 30. 10 Ibid., p. 68. 11 Ibid., p. 20.
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
16
ROYAL FLUSH
Azul de atardecer.” 12 Architecture serving memory, serving an obsession of reliving the past, so to say. This obsession of reliving the past and the ‘copying’ of different observations and times, of memories, becomes more clear in Rossi’s example about the opposite of memorizing, namely “…..forgetting is also associated with a loss of our own identity and that of the things we observe; every change occurs within a moment of obsession. The difference between the long urban building I had designed for the Gallaratese quarter in Milan about ten years earlier and these small houses of Elba seems to me to elucidate my one idea about the city and the places where we live: they should be seen as part of the reality of human life. They are like copies of different observations and times: my youthful observation of long workers’ scaffolds, of courtyards full of voices and meetings which I spied on with a sort of fear in my bourgeois childhood, had the same fascination as the cabins or, better, as the small houses which came to mind in other situations and places – like the monks’ houses at the Certosa in Pavia or those endless American suburbs.” 13 Rossi’s architecture is not only serving memory but also avoiding the loss of identity which is related to forgetting because it seems plausible that if memory carries responsibility for identity, oblivion serves the loss of this identity and is opposed by Rossi’s architecture. After describing his particularly interest in books about immunology, Rossi declares being deeply impressed by Ivan Roitt’s definition in Essential Immunology: ““Memory, specificity, and the recognition of ‘non-self’ – these lie at the heart of immunology.” Memory and specificity as characteristics enabling the recognition of the self and of what is foreign to it seem to me the clearest conditions and explanations of reality. Specificity cannot exist without memory, nor can memory that does not emanate from a specific moment: only the union of the two permits the awareness of one’s own individuality and its opposite (of self and non-self).” 14 Here Rossi shows a link between one’s own individuality (‘self’, personality so to say) and memory. His opinion is that specificity, that what makes personality unique, cannot exist without memory and memory cannot exist without the specificity of a moment. Comparing memory with architectural structure, Rossi creates a link between architecture, specificity and memory when he explains that these ideas about immunology “…..have seemed to answer my questions, seemed to correspond to my interest in things and, let us also say, my interest in architecture. Memory is constructed out of its own specificity, and whether this construction is defensible or not, it can recognize alien structures. This is also man’s relation with the city, with the construction of his microclimate, with his own specificity.” 15 In his concluding statement, Rossi explains the importance of specificity of memories, in the obsession for recreating history when he again approaches “…..what I stated a moment ago about the theater and the mirror. The desire to remake something is similar to retaking the same photograph: no technique is ever sufficiently perfect to prevent changes introduced by the lens and the light, and in the end, there is always a different object anyway. Certainly there is always a different object. This is perhaps what is autobiographical in a building and what I like to see in architecture, but also in the abandonment of architecture. For a past without the desire of the present is sad.” 16 Rossi states that it is impossible to remake history, because changes, especially small ones, are unavoidable and moreover, it would be a sad thing if history was desperately trying to stay unaltered, ignore the specificity of the 12 Rossi, A. (1981), p. 34-37. 13 Ibid., p. 41. 14 Ibid., p. 62. 15 Ibid., p. 62. 16 Ibid., p. 78.
17
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
ROYAL FLUSH
moment, and deny changes creating the present. Drawing a short conclusion about Aldo Rossi’s ‘A Scientific Autobiography’ there can be said that the relation between architecture and memory is mostly a personal one. His inspiration, motivation and passion in architecture come from his personal history and by his memory he is fully aware of this. His memories tell him who he is and he explains his architecture by the use of his memory. In experiencing architecture, Rossi refers to his personal architectural experiences in the past, which influence his design behaviour, trying to design from this memories and recreate moments of his personal history, almost like he is designing for memory itself. But in the end, Rossi also realizes that exact copying of memory is impossible, because the specificity of a moment constructs its uniqueness and like an architectural structure, memory recognizes alien structures.
REM KOOLHAAS ‘DELIRIOUS NEW YORK’ Totally different from the story of Aldo Rossi, Rem Koolhaas’s book seems to be not a personal tale. So personal memory appears impossible to be found in ‘Delirious New York’, but considering the cover of the original and first edition of the book, the city and its buildings are pictured as if they have real and individual personalities, as if they are living characters. Taking this into account, the history of New York, Manhattan, might show some ‘personal’ memories comparable to our own. Koolhaas’s documentation about the founding history of New York City starts at the very beginning with a small part about prehistory and the discovery of Manhattan in “…..1609 by Henry Hudson in his search for “a new route to the Indies by way of the north” on behalf of the Dutch East India Company.” 17 The story ends with the World’s Fair of 1964 and afterwards, Koolhaas suggests a couple of designs for Manhattan in his final chapter: “Appendix: A Fictional Conclusion” in which he shows the value of the different designs by referring to the city’s ‘personal’ history with its developed theories. It has no use to describe every aspect of Manhattans history, but some essential subjects will be discussed because they might support the insight in Koolhaas’s version of the relation between creation and perception of architectural experiences and personal memories. Of course, the worldwide known ‘Manhattan Grid’ is mentioned in the book, as a design that started in 1807 when “……Simeon deWitt, Gouverneur Morris and John Rutherford are commissioned to design the model that will regulate the “final and conclusive” occupancy of Manhattan. Four years later they propose – above the demarcation that separates the known from the unknowable part of the city – 12 avenues running north-south and 155 streets running east-west. With that simple action they describe a city of 13 x 156 = 2,028 blocks (excluding topographical accidents): a matrix that captures, at the same time, all remaining territory and all future activity on the island. The Manhattan Grid.” 18 This grid which makes, according to Koolhaas “…..the history of architecture and all previous lessons of urbanism irrelevant.” and turns the Central Park of the city into “…..a synthetic Arcadian Carpet” 19 So with this grid, Manhattan turns its back to architectonic history and urban lessons, so to say. 17 Koolhaas, R. (1994), p. 17. 18 Ibid., p. 18. 19 Ibid., p. 20-23.
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
18
ROYAL FLUSH
Another important development is the invention “…..that avove all others will change the face of Manhattan (and, to a lesser degree, of the world): the elevator.” 20 This development was the start of ‘unlimited’ possibilities in the field of high buildings and vertical expansion. Continuing New York’s history, Koolhaas describes the first artificial connection between the in 1609 discovered Coney Island and the mainland in 1823 “…..allowing it to consummate its relationship with Manhattan, where humans have by now congregated in densities as unprecedented as that of Coney’s rabbits. Coney is the logical choice for Manhattan’s resort: the nearest zone of virgin nature that can counteract the enervations of urban civilization.” 21 On this Coney Island, the Dreamland was placed with different attractions like “The Fall of Pompeii is the perfectionist culmination of a series of simulated disasters that have apparently become a psychological addiction for the metropolitan public. In a single day on Coney Island it is possible to “experience” the San Francisco earthquake, the burnings of Rome and Moscow, various naval battles, eposides from the Boer War, the Galveston Flood and…….the eruption of the Vesuvius,…..” and “The Canals of Venice is a gigantic model of Venice inside a reduced version of the Ducal Palace, the largest building in Dreamland. Inside it is night, “with the soft moonlight typical of the city of ‘water streets’ accomplished by a newly invented electrical device. Real gondolas carry the visitors through a Grand Canal reproduced with faithful regard for detail……..Life in Venice is simulated too. “All along the line of progress [of the gondolas] are the natives of the city engaged in their various occupations, coming and going just as the traveller would find them in a real city…..”” 22 These attractions refer to history and other locations in the world, showing that Manhattan isn’t completely oblivious. But the attractions are no more than references and the original situations of their inspiration are immensely more sophisticated and serious. But the toy of Manhattan didn’t last. Koolhaas declares that “In May 1911 the lighting system in the devils that decorate the façade of Dreamland’s End of the World short-circuits. Sparks start a fire that is fanned by a strong sea wind………In three hours Dreamland burns to the ground.” 23 From that moment on, Manhattan started to carry on with its development on its own ground and “Manhattan itself has become the theater of architectural invention.” 24 And after this, Koolhaas writes about ‘The Skyskraper’ and includes in his book a quote of Benjamin de Casseres: “We take from you what we need and we hurl back in your face what we do not need. Stone by stone we shall remove the Alhambra, the Kremlin and the Louvre and build them anew on the banks of the Hudson.” 25 This quote is considering world history and world memory so to say, but the attitude is quite arrogant. Like the New York disrespects world’s memory and uses just what it needs, for no more than its own good. In “The Reproduction Of The World” Koolhaas explains that the invention of the elevator has a great share in the development of the skyscraper with all its levels and that the individuality of every level is extreme. “Each of these artificial levels is treated as a virgin site, as if the others did not exist……..The disconnectedness of the aerial plots seemingly conflicts with the fact that, together, they add up to a single building…….the use of each platform can 20 Koolhaas, R. (1994), p. 25. 21 Ibid., p. 30. 22 Ibid., p. 46-61. 23 Ibid., p. 76. 24 Ibid., p. 78. 25 Ibid., p. 81.
19
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
ROYAL FLUSH
never be known in advance of its construction. Villas may go up and collapse, other facilities may replace them, but that will not affect the framework.” 26 This quick and ‘shallow’ creation of buildings is not by the approval of everyone. Koolhaas mentions an architect named Stanford White who was “forced to experiment, to invent and establish “situations” with a wide popular appeal within the interior acreage. “In 1893 he sets up a gigantic panorama of the Chicago Exposition, to save New Yorkers the long trip West….” Later he turns the arena into replicas of “the Globe Theatre, old Nuremberg, Dickens’ London and the city of Venice, the visitors floating…from exhibit to exhibit in gondolas.” White is caught in the crossfire of the battle between high and low culture that has already flared up at Coney: his spectacles are so “tasteless” that they keep the Social Register away, but they are still not intense enough to attract masses. In the difference between a real gondola and Dreamland’s mechanical gondola propelled along its mechanical track lies White’s dilemma: he is a man of taste who ought to have less. He has no time to resolve it: in 1906 a madman shoots him on the roof of his own project.” 27 So it appears that this new way of constructing, creating architecture with these ‘snatches’ of world memory and culture isn’t very tasteful and the Manhattan blocks, as a result of the Manhattan Grid “are identical and emphatically equivalent in the unstated philosophy of the Grid, a mutation in a single one affects all others as a latent possibility: theoretically, each block can now turn into a self-contained enclave of the Irresistible Synthetic. That potential also implies an essential isolation: no longer does the city consist of a more or less homogeneous texture – a mosaic of complementary urban fragments – but each block is now alone like an island, fundamentally on its own. Manhattan turns into a dry archipelago of blocks” according to Koolhaas. 28 In the chapter “The Lives of a Block”, Koolhaas zooms in on a particular block, namely the block of the WaldorfAstoria Hotel and how it turned into the Empire State Building. He explains the history of the block starting at the beginning, showing how “In 1799 John Thompson acquires (for 2,500 USD) 20 acres of wilderness – “fertile, partly wooded and eminently suitable for the raising of various produce”- to cultivate as farmland. He builds “a new and convenient house, barn and several out-houses.” In 1827 the site ends up, via two other owners, in the possession of William B. Astor for 20,000 USD……Myth meets Block when William B. builds the first Astor Mansion on the new property…...In the 1880s the 33rd Street corner carries the original Astor Mansion, now inhabited by grandson William Waldorf Astor…..Throughout the century, the aura of the Astor Mansions has attracted an assembly of similar residences; the block has become the heart of Manhattan’s more desirable area, its famous Astor ballroom the epicentre of New York’s high society…..the house will be replaced by a hotel, but a hotel that will remain, in Astor’s instructions, “a house…with as little of the typically hotel features in evidence as humanly possible,” so that it can preserve the Astor aura. For Astor, the destruction of a structure does not preclude the preservation of its spirit; with his Waldorf he injects the concept of reincarnation into architecture.” and mentioning all of this, Koolhaas gives the origin of Waldorf Astoria’s name and the concept of architectural reincarnation, the creation of architecture with history as ‘foundation’. 29 Considering buildings and blocks as personalities, the architecture of the block seems to be constructing on memory and this idea continues while Koolhaas resumes his story about the development of this block: “As soon as the 13-story Waldorf is finished, Boldt diverts his attention to the other half of the block. He knows that he can only realize the full potential of location and site by reuniting the two halves. After years of negotiations he convinces Jacob Astor to sell. Now the Astoria, postponed twin of the Waldorf, can be built…..In 1896, three 26 Koolhaas, R. (1994), p. 82-85. 27 Ibid., p. 94-95. 28 Ibid., p. 97. 29 Ibid., p. 132-134.
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
20
ROYAL FLUSH
years after the opening of the Waldorf, the 16-story Astoria is completed…..The transplantations from the Astor mansions – literal or merely by nomenclature – suggest that the Waldorf-Astoria is conceived by its promoters as a haunted house, rife with the ghosts of its predecessors. To construct a House haunted by its own past and those of other buildings: such is the Manhattanist strategy for the production of vicarious history, “age” and respectability. In Manhattan the new and revolutionary is presented, always, in the false light of familiarity.” 30 So here Koolhaas speaks about a memory of the block that is kept alive in the new and revolutionary version of the building, again with the earlier arrogant attitude because the new is presented “in the false light of familiarity” and “vicarious history, “age” and respectability” are simply used as a cheap tool: the Manhattanist strategy. This disrespect of history and culture, by simply using what seems to fit in the most successful way becomes even clearer in Koolhaas’s next description of the block’s development. He states about the ‘twin hotel’ Waldorf that “the two parallel tendencies announce the death of the hotel, or at least the end of its material being. The Waldorf has instigated a paradoxical tradition of the last word…..which, to preserve itself, is forced continuously to self-destruct ,eternally to shed its latest incarnation. Any architectural container that fixes it to a site degenerates sooner or later into a battery of outdated technical and atmospheric apparatus that prevents the hasty surrender to change that is the tradition’s raison d’être. After barely 20 years of confident existence the twin hotel is abruptly diagnosed – by a consensus of commercial intuition and public opinion – as “old”, unfit to accommodate true modernity. In 1924 Boldt and his partner, Lucius Boomer, propose gradually to “reconstruct the Waldorf-Astoria and make it vastly more modern.”…..The final remedy is to perform cosmetic surgery on the older part of the twin, so that the Waldorf reaches the same height as the Astoria. But each proposal is an additional argument for the hotel’s death warrant” 31
But why? Why is every proposal an additional argument for the hotel’s death warrant? Why is preserving itself equal to forcing to self-destruct and eternally to shed the latest incarnation? History as a physical and architectonic foundation seems to doom the future of the block. In the part “Liberation”, of the “The Lives of a Block” chapter, Koolhaas explains by the use of ‘Manhattanism’ that “The real problem of the Waldorf-Astoria is that it is not a Skyscraper. The more the hotel’s success enhances the value of the block, the more urgent it becomes to realize a definitive structure that is at once: a new incarnation of the idea of the Waldorf as defined by William Waldorf Astor – a colossal “house” with the preserved atmosphere of a private mansion – and a Skyscraper that reaps the financial harvest allowed by the Zoning Law…….the block is now contested by two equally phantasmagorical occupants: the first, the final Skyscraper that strives, almost beyond the control of man, toward the full exploitation of the 1916 model; and the second, the re-reincarnation of the Waldorf idea. The first……as culmination of a sequence of occupancies – from virgin nature to Thompson’s farm, to the Astor Mansions, to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, to finally, the Empire State. It suggests that the model for Manhattan’s urbanism is now a form of architectural cannibalism: by swallowing its predecessors, the final building accumulates all the strengths and spirits of the previous occupants of the site and, in its own way, preserves their memory. The second…..suggests that the spirit of the Walldorf will, once more, survive the physical destruction to reappear triumphantly on another location in the Grid. ” 32 This means that the first option is literally building on memory, leaving everything intact and develop architecture, step by step, till its final form, the Empire State Building in which memory will stay in physical appearance. The second option however, demolishes everything, erases physical memory and rebuilds the idea from memory, 30 Koolhaas, R. (1994), p. 134-135. 31 Ibid., p. 137. 32 Ibid., p. 137-138
21
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
ROYAL FLUSH
the Waldorf-Astoria history, at once to its final shape, the Empire State Building, without any development in architecture. This second option fits the ‘Manhattanism’ best and Koolhaas declares that “In any other culture the demolition of the old Waldorf would have been a philistine act of destruction, but in the ideology of Manhattanism it constitutes a double liberation: while the site is freed to meet its evolutionary destiny, the idea of the Waldorf is released to be redesigned as the example of an explicit Culture of Congestion.” 33 Manhattanism is all about erasing physical, architectonic memory and completely starting over again on a ‘clean’ site with no sensible memory at all. The memory is subconsciously present but the city is not using it as a foundation. Giving a conclusion about Rem Koolhaas’s writings in his “Delirious New York” there can be said that indeed there is a relation presented between architecture and memory, but not on a regular personal level. Seeing Manhattan as a personality, it is very aware of both the world’s and its personal memory but its way of referring to it isn’t exactly bringing back these memories, at least not from the physical and architectonic point of view. Cocky Manhattan knows about the cultural and architectonic memories of the world, but seems to turn his back to it and uses just what it needs, in an obsessive attempt to be modern and seems successful in doing it. The result is not the re-experiencing of these memories, but ‘tasteless’ attractions for ‘shallow’ entertainment. Also the ‘personal’ memories of the city, in particular of the Manhattan Blocks, zoomed in on the development of the Walldorf-Astoria Hotel into the Empire State Building are not completely forgotten; however the physical and thereby architectonic experience of these memories is erased. It seems that Manhattanism cannot live with experiencing memory through architecture and has to slaughter every constructed piece referring to it, desperately trying to be and stay ‘modern’.
RICHARD SENNETT ‘THE CRAFTSMAN’ In his elaborated writing about craftsmanship, Richard Sennett uses history as an important source of inspiration. Now history and memory are not the same thing, because unlike history, the existence of memory is dependent on personality. Sennett’s tale is not directly a personal one, because he is not telling the story of his own life or his own feelings, but in another way the book is very personal. His personal opinion and emotion show themselves through his explanation of ‘The Craftsman’. But history, and in a kind of way memory, described in his story aren’t related to his own personality. Sennett presents every aspect of craftsmanship to the very detail and it appears that besides history, which inter alia shows inspirational examples of craftsmen from the past, also memory is involved in the process of acquiring quality which is essential for craftsmanship. The link between this craftsmanship and memory starts when Sennett states that “All craftsmanship is founded on skill developed to a high degree. By one commonly used measure, about ten thousand hours of experience are required to produce a master carpenter or musician…..people can feel fully and think deeply what they are doing once they do it well.” 34 According to Sennett, skill is needed to become a craftsman, skill that takes ten thousand hours of experience. He shows that this skill has also another importance when he declares that “As with deeply held values in any culture, it seems self-evident that people will identify with other craftsmen as follow citizens. Skill would bind them to their 33 Koolhaas, R. (1994), p. 137-138 34 Sennett, R. (2008), p. 20-22.
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
22
ROYAL FLUSH
ancestors as to their fellows”’ 35 This means that if skill is the link between the craftsman and both is ancestors and fellows, skill carries responsibility for memory and personality. These skills play a great role in the book of Sennett which shows many examples of skills like “In de traditional world of the archaic potter or doctor, standards for good work were set by the community, as skills passed down from generation to generation.” 36 So what then is a skill precisely? Sennett asks himself this very same question in his book and answers it immediately by saying that “The generic answer is that skill is a trained practice. In this, skill is contrasts to the coup de foudre, the sudden inspiration. The lure of inspiration lies in part in the conviction that raw talent can take the place of training. Musical prodigies are often cited to support this conviction – and wrongly so. An infant musical prodigy like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart did indeed harbour the capacity to remember large swatches of notes, but from ages five to seven Mozart learned how to train his great innate musical memory when he improvised at the keyboard. He evolved methods for seeming to produce music spontaneously. The music he later wrote down again seems spontaneous because he wrote directly on the page with relatively few corrections, but Mozart’s letters show that he went over his scores again and again in his mind before setting them in ink.” 37 Skill becomes skill by training, by practicing over and over again. This practicing is also linked to personality when Sennett says that “Going over an action again and again…..enables self-criticism.” 38. Skill makes a craftsman aware of oneself as a person by criticizing oneself, like skill is connecting a craftsman as a personality to his fellows as personalities. Also the craft of architecture seems to be relying on skills when Sennett explains, by Renzo Piano’s working procedure: “”You start by sketching, then you do a drawing, then you make a model, and then you go to reality – you go to the site – and then you go back to drawing. You build up a kind of circularity between drawing and making and then back again.” About repetition and practice Piano observes, “This is very typical of the craftsman’s approach. You think and you do at the same time. You draw and you make. Drawing…is revisited. You do it, you redo it, and you redo it again.“” 39 Sennett speaks about skills as a result of training, practised by the use of subconscious memory. Although he is not literally saying this he explains that “Embedding stands for a process essential to all skills, the conversion of information and practices into tacit knowledge. If a person had to think about each and every movement of waking up, she or he would take an hour to get out of bed. When we speak of doing something “instinctively,” we are often referring to behaviour we have so routinized that we don’t have to think about it. In learning a skill, we develop a complicated repertoire of such procedures.” 40 We remember how to act, we experience the bedding-in of a practice into tacit knowledge, and it becomes so routinized that is moves from being a conscious process to a subconscious memory in progress. So practice seems to be a conscious process and tacit knowledge appears to be the subconscious memory of this practice. All of this is about skills and repetition on a personal level but besides examples about single persons, Sennett gives an architectural example about a zoomed out version and the improvement of the skill when it is shared over more generations and becomes a system with a ‘collective memory’, so to say. The example is about “…..the immense Salisbury Cathedral began, in 1220 – 1225, as a set of stone posts and 35 Sennett, R. (2008), p. 22. 36 Ibid., p. 25. 37 Ibid., p. 37. 38 Ibid., p. 38. 39 Ibid., p. 40. 40 Ibid., p. 50.
23
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
ROYAL FLUSH
beams that established the Lady Chapel at one end of the future cathedral. The builders had a general idea of the cathedral’s eventual size, but no more. However, the proportions of the beams in the Lady Chapel suggested a larger building’s engineering DNA and were articulated in the big nave and two transepts built from 1225 to about 1250. From 1250 to 1280, this DNA then generated the cloister, treasury, and chapter house; in the chapter house the original geometries, meant for a square structure, were now adapted to an octagon, in the treasury to a six-sided vault. How did the builders achieve this astonishing construction? There was no one single architect; the masons had no blueprints. Rather, the gestures with which the building began to evolve in principles and were collectively managed over three generations. Each event in building practice became absorbed in the fabric of instructing and regulating the next generation. The result is a striking building, a distinctive building embodying innovations in construction…..” 41 Subconscious, shared memory achieving incredible results. Here it seems that skill by repetition and memory can be a powerful tool. Looking back, learning from past achievements and mistakes, memorizing in a certain way, can be a guide for craftsmanship, according to Sennett when he uses the path of Ruskin as “His is not the path of effortless mastery; he has had troubles, and he has learned from them.” and “Ruskin’s Seven Lamps of Architecture provided seven guides, or “lamps,” for the troubled craftsman, guides for anyone who works directly on material things. These seven are:…..”The lamp of memory,” the guidance provided by the time before machinery ruled;…..As a vein of radical thought, Ruskin refuses the present, looks backward in order to look forward.” 42 Like described earlier, Sennett explains that craftsmanship needs time, because practicing of skill needs time. He uses this statement to show a difference between craft and art when he says that ”the elapse of time proved one way to separate craft and art: craft practice is stretched out, art of the original sort is a more immediate event. The ancient potter dwelled in stretched-out time; after the wheel spinning on a pivot first appeared, centuries elapsed before the practice formed of drawing up clay was routinized. The bedding-in of a practice, in which the actions of the hand gradually become tacid knowledge, explains this longue durée.” 43 One could say that according to Richard Sennett, a difference between craft and art is that craft is the one with memory and art is the one without. Through his book, Sennett gives various example about ‘memory’ in the long term, but there is also short term memory and one example pointed out about this kind of memory is the one of “…..music…..” in which “the ear works in concert with the fingertip to probe. Put rather dryly, the musician touches the string in different ways, hears a variety of effects, then searches for the means to repeat and reproduce the tone he or she wants. In reality, this can be a difficult and agonizing struggle to answer the question “What exactly did I do? How can I do it again?” Instead of the fingertip acting as mere servant, this kind of touching moves backward from sensation to procedure. The principle here is reasoning backward from consequence to cause.” 44 At the end of his book, Sennett shows five basic mental domains which “…..seem to map out the raw materials of what any sort of skill will be composed.” namely “…..fluid reasoning…..basic knowledge…..quantitative reasoning…..visual-spatial processing…..working memory.” 45 So memory is not the only thing responsible for the existence of the skill, but it appears that a working memory is an 41 Sennett, R. (2008), p. 70. 42 Ibid., p. 113-114. 43 Ibid., p. 123. 44 Ibid., p. 157. 45 Ibid., p. 280.
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
24
ROYAL FLUSH
essential aspect for a skill to exist and since craftsmanship cannot survive without skill, there is no craftsmanship without memory. So final, if we believe, like Richard Sennett, that everyone can be a craftsman, crafted architecture is only possible with the support of memory. Concluding about Richard Sennett and his ‘The Craftsman’ can be stated that the relation between architecture and memory is a subtle one. Sennett describes good craftsmanship in relation to skills. Skills can only exist when memory is involved in a process of repetition and practice. Because of self-criticism, learning from ones mistakes, a skill can develop and is also partly responsible for personality development and shaping. The skill exists because we experience the bedding-in of practice into tacit knowledge in which practice seems to be a conscious process and tacit knowledge appears to be the subconscious memory of this practice. Memory is a powerful tool, but when shared over more generations it becomes even stronger and result in unbelievable craftsmanship, also applicable to architecture.
MIRROR Comparing and criticizing these three different visions, both Aldo Rossi and Rem Koolhaas see memory in full awareness, as a conscious thing from the architectural point of view. Where Rossi is almost saying that you should listen to your memory in the creation of your architecture because it tells you how to make good designs, nice architectural experiences and the re-experiencing of memory, Rem Koolhaas’s Manhattan argues that you definitely shouldn’t listen but turn your back on it and use only the parts (of world’s memory) and ideas (of the Manhattan Block’s memory) that fit best considering your plans of being completely fresh and modern, because that is good architecture. There lies a truth in both of them; the story of Rossi is such a personal one, that the architecture being product of it, is also very personal, created for his memories. So everything Rossi states might be true according to himself, but can we, as a visitors of his buildings, experience his personal memories? So will it for that reason be good architecture to us too? That statement could be questioned. On the other hand, Manhattan’s arrogant attitude towards world’s memory and culture is something that Koolhaas could define as ‘entertainment’ architecture, being a quite shallow reference of its inspiration. Looking at the Manhattan Block of the Empire State Building, it is understandable that not every piece of history can be saved because there is simply no space for it; but the theory’s quality of demolishment and thereby the Walldorfs release - since the memory wouldn’t have its physical and architectural form anymore and a new building could only refer to it - do not make its history completely re-experienceable. Rossi would say that perfect redesigning of this idea is impossible. Different from Aldo Rossi and Rem Koolhaas, Richard Sennett’s craftsman (architect) is not working with the term memory as conscious element, but states that quality of his work comes from his subconscious memory, his skills. By practising, while time passes, the architect will become better without the need of directly referring to his personal memory. Both Rossi and Koolhaas are not arguing this, but then, Sennett’s vision is not saying anything about a design attitude or the experiencing of architecture combined with memory. So first, Sennett might be right in his vision about the fact that one needs memory on a subconscious level to become a crafted architect, but the fact that this working memory acts on a subconscious level, leaves no other choice but using it.
25
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
ROYAL FLUSH
Second, Rossi’s statement about the need of memory to explain his architecture is confirmed by Sennett when he points out that our working memory turned us into the craftsmen we are and helps us explaining our architecture. In the end, the creation of an architectural design is a personal thing and our design skills tell us about who we truly are. But the designing for our memory, like Rossi does, the recreation of memories, is something quite difficult to understand though, because the only one who knows and is able to re-experience our personal memories is ourselves and the creation of architecture should not contain a selfish attitude but is mainly meant for others, not able to architecturally experience our personal memories. Besides that, Rossi himself is already stating that we cannot re-design memory completely and perfectly, so perhaps we should not try to do so. Finally, Manhattan was developing so fast that memory had a hard time catching up. History was there, but New York City was so focussed on looking forward, that looking back felt like holding back. So therefore, Manhattan’s ‘rebuilding from scratch’-attitude is acceptable, but like Koolhaas points out, it feels so ‘delirious’, it feels like a sort of sensibility - that Rossi seems to have plenty of - is missing. So personal memory in creation and perception of architectural experiences seems to be inevitable and is perfectly coöperating with the sub-conscious part of memory that creates quality through design skills. But what about this conscious part of memory? Emotionally referring to personal memories, like Rossi did, is not very useful for others. But the shallow referring to ‘personal’ memories, like Manhattan did, also does not seem to be the best possible answer. Is it better to not refer to memory at all? Or is there another way to use memory in the creation and perception of architectural experiences? Rossi compared memory to an architectural structure, but is architecture also comparable to an aspect of memory? Memory, conscious and sub conscious, appears to be the total of what we know. Architecture is included by this knowledge and the perception of spaces and the understanding of it have everything to do with what we already have experienced, with what we already know and therefore with our memories. Also the creation of architecture cannot exist without knowledge, grown by our memory. But what if architecture could question this knowledge. What if there are spaces questioning the very thing we already know, the spaces we know, the perspective we use both to create and experience architecture? Would it be possible to create these spaces? Would it be possible that architecture created by our memory and therefore created by the known, the familiar, show us something of the unknown, the unfamiliar and give a renewed perspective in the way we perceive and experience spaces? Architecture is a useful tool in expressing our attitude towards the familiar. It reflects the approval of our positive memories - the experiences we desire to revive - and the critique towards our negative memories - the experiences we desire to change - and thereby constructs prospective memories. By knowing and learning from its past, architecture can create its future, seeking to reveal what is hidden and amaze the ordinary by creating the extraordinary.
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
26
ROYAL FLUSH
27
ARCHITECTURE BY MEMORY
RESEARCH
Royal Flush
Stvanices Waterfall Casino
ROYAL FLUSH
RESEARCH Given the ambition of the architectural design studio, it had to start its investigation with a crucial question, a question that had to be answered in order to be capable of celebrating the fringe: ‘What is a fringe?’ The fringe case studies were executed in service of this question and although they did deliver useful information (this will be partly explained in chapter ‘What is a fringe?’) to the studio, the question was not yet answered satisfyingly causing it to keep influencing the studio’s research process. Along the way, the research faced a new question, a question that would determine the architectural aspect of the assignment: ‘Which programme, resulting in a designed building, could be used to celebrate the fringe?’ Each student had to formulate a programme and elaborate it in an architectural design, both responding to the basic themes of the studio and give clear, strong proposals for the three following issues: Sculpture, Scenography and Structure. Besides being a possible fringe location, Stvanice Island possesses a history of conflicts with the incidentally extreme water rise of the Vltava River. Therefore, the chosen programme was given an extra task, namely the fulfillment of an active role in the conflict between the island and the incidentally extreme water rise. The programme should be capable of resisting these extreme situations of extraordinary water rising. Finally, the central position of the island would force the programme to take a position in the island’s relation with its urban environment. This relation was to be discovered and the chosen programme should be a reflecting its attitude towards this relation. In this particular case the programme of a casino was chosen to be explored, researched and examined on its architectural qualities to weigh and measure its capability of answering to the assignment and serving the studio’s ambition. (The motive behind this choice is to be found in chapter ‘What is a casino?’)
RESEARCH QUESTIONS Considering the studios research process as shortly mentioned above, the question directing the individual research process, continuing the studios work came to be the following: Is the programme of a casino translated in a sculptural, scenographical and structural proposing architectural design, capable of being a designed exception in both its appearance and the experience it entails and therefore of celebrating the fringe situation of Prague’s Stvanice Island? Given the complexity of this research question, a list of sub questions was needed in order to unravel the research question and answer its different aspects. Firstly, the sub questions regarding the fringe aspect: - What is a fringe? - What can be learned from different examples of other fringe situations? - Are there any theories about fringes documented and if so, what can be learned from them? - Is Prague’s Stvanice Island truly a fringe situation? - If Prague’s Stvanice Island is truly a fringe situation, which elements/qualities are responsible for its fringe identity? RESEARCH
30
ROYAL FLUSH
Secondly, the sub questions regarding the casino aspect: - What is a casino? - Does its appearance support its function and if so, how? - Does the composition of its plans support its function and if so, how? - Does the architectural experience support its function and if so, how? - Which different functional aspects form the programme of a casino? - Is there a general rule which orders the proportions of a casino’s different functional aspects? And finally, the sub question combining both the fringe and casino sub questions: - If elements/qualities responsible for Stvanices fringe identity are found, could they be used by the, yet to be designed, casino programme in order to celebrate the fringe? - What would be the ideal location of the casino, considering both its function, the fringe identity of Stvanice Island - if present - and its resistance of the Vltava Rivers incidentally extreme water rising? - How can the three yet to be proposed issues (Sculpture, Scenography, Structure), serve both the casino programme and the islands fringe identity - if present - and finally resist the Vltava River’s incidentally extreme water rising?
RESEARCH METHOD In order to answer the first set of sub questions regarding the fringe aspect of the research question, firstly, all useful information from the studio’s book ‘Celebrating the Fringe: Designing the exception’ had to be filtered and combined with new information coming from both the theoretical field as findings from personally experiencing the actual location of Stvanice Island. A search for theories explaining fringes had to be started for the creation of a brighter insight in these proven difficult to understand phenomenona. Besides exploring the theoretical field, the ‘soul’ of Stvance Island had to be found, resulting in a statement about Stvanice indeed being a fringe (or not) and if so, revealing and explaining its fringe characteristics with its associated elements. The elaboration of this specific research methods part is to be found in chapter: ‘What is a Fringe?’ The second set of sub questions regarding the casino aspect of the research question also needed both a theoretical foundation, which was found in Robert Venturi’s ‘Learining from Las Vegas’, and a practical side by the use of case studies, examples, like the fringe research of the studio did need its fringe case studies. The elaboration of this specific research methods part is to be found in chapter: ‘What is a Casino?’ The combination of previously mentioned sets of sub questions was to be answered by the use of a design process that firstly explored both Stvanice’s fringe elements and the aspects required for the creation of an actual casino; secondly, used these elements and aspects to both serve all the needs of the designs total functionality and celebrate the fringe qualities of the island; and finally, resulted in the definitive architectural design being Stvanice’s fringe casino. The elaboration of this last research method’s part is to be found in chapter: ‘Design’, which does not only present the design process but also reveals its final product, the definitive architectural design, the ‘Stvanice Waterfall Casino’ The findings answering all sub questions were to be summarized, combined and ordered to fully answer the question directing the research process of this particular case and ending both the process and the pages of this document with a final, concluding statement about the theme of the architectural design studio. This final statement is to be found in the final chapter: ‘Conclusion’ 31
RESEARCH
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
Royal Flush
Stvanices Waterfall Casino
ROYAL FLUSH
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
34
ROYAL FLUSH
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
Like the main introduction of this document already states, this question is quite a hard one to answer since every found example being a possible fringe, seems to work according to its very own rules and proves itself in being hardly comparable to other examples. Although a universal definition of the term ‘fringe’ might be impossible to create, the studio agreed to research thirteen places, seeming or seemed to be fringes, in a quest to at least find elements that could reveal a fringe’s identity and quality. Different characteristics of these thirteen places such as history, functionality, density, scale and atmosphere were to be discovered, studied compared to their surrounding areas and mapped in the studio’s book. The combined findings were to give an insight in a fringe revealing and explaining tool and create a contribution to the challenge of discovering an answer to the question: ‘What is a fringe?’
CASE STUDIES The thirteen studied fringe cases are listed below: 1. High Line Park 2. Coney Island 3. Parc de La Villette 4. MuseumsQuartier 5. C-Mine 6. Monastery of Novy Dvur 7. Imperial City Hué 8. Pedregulho Housing Estate 9. Kowloon Walled City 10. San Michele Island 11. Walled City of Shibam 12. Christiania 13. Exodus While studying these thirteen spaces, some of them happened to be ‘stronger’ fringes than others and some of them more subtle than others. But all contained qualities which gave material worthy of thought and further research. Some of the findings provided by the analyses of the case studies were judged as being useful for and fitting in the context of the topic discussed by this document.
35
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
ROYAL FLUSH
CONEY ISLAND ‘In the 19th century, Coney Island became popular among the masses of Manhattan as an escape from the city. Coney Island always existed in binary opposition to Manhattan, after being artificially severed from the mainland. First it was a natural oasis away from the rapidly growing urbanism of Manhattan. As Manhattan grew and more people flocked to the island, it could no longer exist as a natural island and mutated to the opposite binary, one of extreme artificiality and urban intensification. In this position, Coney Island functioned as a laboratory for Manhattan, experimenting with a new urbanism in the Technology of the Fantastic.’ 1 Coney Island proved itself being a place where people could escape from the noisy atmosphere of the metropolis of New York. This was possible because of the apparently large enough distance, between Manhattan and Coney Island. Naturally, besides the distance, also the water played an immense role in the separation and isolation of the island. The island being called ‘the laboratory for Manhattan’ shows that it was used as a place for experimenting, a place to create something new, something different and not yet known, creating the unique atmosphere, completely different from its surroundings. Coney Island proved itself being a fringe of amusement, a retreat for the citizen of New Yorks metropolis. However, over time, the connection between the island and main land became stronger resulting in the weakening of Coney Islands fringe character. One could say that the city took over the uniqueness of the island.
Img. 1: One of Coney Islands Park Elements
Img. 2: Analyses scheme Coney Island
PARC DE LA VILETTE ‘Parc De La Villette was put forth as a design competition by the city of Paris in 1982. The site was previously a place for slaughterhouses. In Bernard Tschumi’s proposal Parc de la Villette was envisioned as a place of culture, where natural and artificial are forced together into a state of constant reconfiguration and discovery….. Critics argued that it would exist in a vacuum as it does not take the history of the site or the surrounding context into consideration.’ 2 1 Sonnema. J, (2013), p. 29-36. 2 Addou, F. (2013), p. 37-44.
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
Img. 3: Parc De La Vilette
36
ROYAL FLUSH
Parc De La Villette runs its own system, its own set of rules, when compared to its urban environment. After being a different tissue because of its previous function, it manifests itself at this current moment as an quite enclosed and introvert void in the urban density, possessing a small amount of buildings, hardly comparable to the building blocks outside of the park. Parc de la Vilette’s history, urban tissue and enclosed, introvert character create a typical atmosphere resulting in a space, different from its environment.
Img. 4: Analyses scheme Parc De La Vilette
PEDREGULHO HOUSING ESTATE ‘The Pedregulho Housing Estate was an initiative project carried out by Affonso Eduardo Reidy in Rio de Janeiro. In 1946 the Popular Housing Department raised for the first time the issue of collective housing as a new urban concept. Reidy, who was the City Hall architect at the time, designed an urban plan based on the construction of individual housing developments together with complementary services. The Pedregulho Housing Estate was the first project to be completed. The purpose was to improve the existing conditions and provide the inhabitants with worthy dwellings.’ 3 Pedregulho housing complex in Rio de Janeiro seemed to be designed as a ‘fringe’ from the beginning, a social laundromat in the middle of the ‘dirty’ favelas. There is a clear contrast between the white, clean materials of Pedregulho and the roughness, disorder of the favelas. Mostly, fringes can be seen as chaotic spaces or spaces following different rules when compared to their structured surroundings. A chaotic site surrounded by an ordered environment that wishes to influence or take over. One could choose to see this particular situation as ‘an inversed fringe’, an unchanged, structured, curved, modern slab surrounded by different, unorganized layers of urban tissue, the chaotic favelas.
Img. 5: Pedregulho housing estate
3 Cirjan, T. (2013), p.81-92 .
Img. 6: Analyses scheme Pedregulho housing estate
37
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
ROYAL FLUSH
KOWLOON WALLED CITY ‘Kowloon Walled City, also known as the ‘City of Darkness’, was located in the Hong Kong metropolis and existed as a fringe from the 1950s till the 1993. From origin the Walled City was a Chinese military fort (960–1279) but after the second World War, it became a non-government area as a result of a British ’Hands Off’ policy. From that moment, the area became a machine of many different kinds of activities, constantly growing in density and height with an extraordinary façade on its outside and mysterious atmosphere behind its outer wall. A strange, extremely dense and highly active building block compared to its open and calm surroundings. Its characteristics became stronger over time, till the Chinese government decided to demolish and build a city park out of it because of the uncontrollability causing too much fraction between authorities and the Walled City.’ 4
Img. 7: Kowloon Walled City
After the studying of Kowloon Walled City it turned out to be not just a different building block but a completely different world, already sensible by only looking at it and tangible from the first steps one could take inside. Once behind its facades, there seemed to be no authority, no orientation, no sense of day and night, hardly clean air to breathe or space to use and a completely different society and attitude, compared to its environment. Everything on the inside was different from the outside world, revealing itself piece by piece from the moment one entered. As being so very unknown and mysterious to its surroundings, the Walled City was almost seen as a threat, a uncontrollable place, and did not survive the control demanding will of its surrounding, growing authorities.
Img. 8: Analyses scheme Kowloon Walled City
4 Poortman, J. (2013), p.93-100 .
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
38
ROYAL FLUSH
WALLED CITY OF SHIBAM ‘The 16th century walled city of Shibam is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in the desert of Yemen. It is one of the oldest examples of high rise construction and was built on a cliff for defensive purposes. Its sun-dried mud brick towers have given the city the nickname ‘Manhattan of the desert’…..Today the walled city is only a small part of the built structures in the area. Its unique grid and building height set it apart from newer structures though, which are relatively low and organized along straight streets. Shibam’s grid is based on the, at the time, advanced sewage system.’ 5 The main characteristics which make the Walled City a fringe are owed to its location and history. The need to create a safe city led to the choice of the cliff as a location. In order to fit enough people and animals on the limited area of the cliff, the citizens had to build vertically. When times changed and people preferred more modern low rise housing, the city expanded outside its walls. As life inside the city walls became unattractive and people moved out, the Walled City became more and more a fringe space and its location to the north of the river resulted in its contemporary isolation while being cut off from the majority of the city at times the river is flooded.
Img. 9: Walled City of Shibam
Img. 10: Analyses scheme Walled City of Shibam
5 Gusic, S. (2013), p.109-114 .
39
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
ROYAL FLUSH
Naturally, like mentioned before, not every studied case and the findings raised by its analysis will be discussed in this document. To get a full view of the thirteen case study analyses and the resultant conclusions, the studio’s book ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’ can be consulted.
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
40
ROYAL FLUSH
CONCLUSION CASE STUDIES The case studies show that a fringe is a phenomenon that emerges, a place that not always was a fringe place. Kowloon shows the example of a place becoming a fringe from the moment the block was built, without the intention of being a fringe. Shibam shows the example of a place that turned into a fringe, also unwillingly, because of a changing environment. Besides this emerging fringes, the case study of the Pedregulho Housing Estate (Parc de la Vilette and Coney Island to some extent) shows that a fringe can also be designed with aware intentions, designed to be different. All researched case studies, also the one not presented in this document, show situations being exceptional appearances to their environment. However, this cannot be the only aspect creating a fringe space, since in that case every city park or river or island can be called a fringe, which is not true. The exceptional aspect of fringe spaces is not by definition and certainly not simply by its appearance. Besides this appearance which undeniably can be seen as fringe characteristic, there have to be more aspects to hold responsible for the existence of fringe places and their qualities. The case studies show that most of these aspects probably differ for any fringe situation, but there happen to be some aspects applied by almost every researched fringe situation. The first one is the use of a border of some kind to create a contemporary or permanent isolation of a certain degree. Both the kind of border and the type or degree of its isolation are different for every situation, but one could say that a fringe in general wishes to separate itself one way or another, up to a certain level. This border can be all sorts of things, for instance using the body of water (Coney Island, Walled City of Shibam), a wall or dense façade (Parc de la Vilette), some sort of ritual before entering the area (Pedregulho Housing Estate) and possibly many other things. Second, a fringe has to bring a feeling which tells the visitor about finding oneself in a different place, a place that is not yet fully understood. Besides earlier mentioned border which helps gaining this feeling, the atmosphere of the place has to raise this feeling that for instance makes the visitor ask oneself: ‘What is this place?’ From now on, this aspect of the fringe will be called its ‘mystery factor’ (The Walled City of Shibam possesses this quite strongly because of its abandonment and Kowloon Walled City because of its extremely different, almost unrecognizable atmosphere) and will stay quite a vague term, since that is its very purpose and meaning, it cannot be understood fully. Third, a fringe happens to have an attitude towards its surroundings and because of its exceptional being, mostly this attitude is a position of critique, up to a certain level. The experimental atmosphere of Coney Island calls the justification of the urban system of Manhattan. The exceptional grid and void of Parc de la Vilette calls the justification of the surrounding grid and density. The clean and structured situation of the Pedregulho Housing Estate questions the chaos and roughness of its surrounding favelas. The mysterious, extremely dense and chaotic atmosphere of Kowloon Walled City shows a world completely different from its environment, showing a possibility of living that differs so much from its surroundings that it questions the authorities of its environment. The Walled City of Shibam with its vertically orientated architecture refers to its history and questions the horizontality of Shibams modernity. Fringes appear to be different in their ways of expression, but mostly seem to show an attitude of critique and question. Finally a fringe seems to create some sort of tension between its own area and the area surrounding it as a result of their border, ‘mystery factor’ and critical attitude. A strong fringe is capable of creating a great tension which in some cases results in the change or even demolition of the fringe (Kowloon) or the change of its surroundings (Coney Island and up to a certain level the Pedregulho Housing Estate). A strong fringe maintains a challenging relationship with the authorities of its surrounding atmosphere. The fringe as truly exceptional phenomenon in its environment cannot live in total harmony with this environment but needs to evoke some sort of friction or dissonance. 41
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
ROYAL FLUSH
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
42
ROYAL FLUSH
HETEROTOPIA The conclusions given from the studio’s fringe case studies did not satisfy. The quest to more understanding and insight in these fringe places continued. Why were some of the fringe examples from the case studies exterminated and why are some of the examples still alive and fully functioning? Are there more elements responsible for a fringes strength or weakness? While searching for answers around the fringe topic, the idea that fringe is a word with multiple interpretations and not just a type of space as used by the studio was discovered. This idea did lead the research into another direction and a new term was found. A term possibly related to the word fringe as used by the studio; a phenomenon possibly capable of shining its light on fringe spaces: HETEROTOPIA Every society is based on laws and rules, a system clearly visible or almost completely hidden, both constructing the foundation of its spaces but at the same time revealing and imposing its borders, limits so to say. Within these borders, we understand the social system because we are familiar with its laws and rules. We as society can also understand the character and quality of spaces being part of the system simply because they obey the given demands. There is no need in explaining the character of these spaces since every ‘normal’ space is such a space. But what is normal? This question in general is a very difficult one to answer and no answer could possibly satisfy every situation in which ‘normal’ is questioned, but within this context, normal could be everything that fits in, everything that follows the rules in such a smooth way that it does not stand out and we do not have to think or doubt about the logic of its existence. It might be everything that does not raise any question since it acts according to the system we are familiar with. So ‘normal’ spaces which follow our ‘normal’ (familiar) laws and rules, create our ‘normal’, understandable society. No questions…… Is that all? The fact of this question’s existence already explains that actually, this is not all. Normal is not everything, and not everything is normal. Our curiosity withholds us from settling for just normal. Our society is depending on balance and therefore we know there is more than just normal. Because of this balance there is no ordinary without extraordinary. Two opposites both question and criticize each other and thereby explaining, defining each other. If our society is built of spaces that we know as normal, ordinary, there must be spaces out there that we would define as extraordinary, different from normal, there must be ‘other spaces’. Due to the system (laws and rules) of our society we understand normal and therefore understand normal spaces. We also know there must be spaces other than normal, ‘other spaces’. But what exactly are they and are we capable of understanding and experiencing them fully?
43
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
ROYAL FLUSH
MICHEL FOUCAULT’S ‘OF OTHER SPACES’ In march 1967, Michel Foucault gave a lecture about heterotopia and the manuscript for this lecture, originally titled ‘Des Espace Autres’, was published by the French journal Architecture Mouvement Continuité in 1984. ‘Of other spaces’, Foucault’s manuscript, reviews his findings about spaces which he called heterotopias. Foucault speaks about previously mentioned balance when he states that ‘we are in an epoch of juxtaposition’ and refers to the Middle Ages where there was ‘... a hierarchic ensemble of places: sacred places and profane places: protected places and open, exposed places: urban places and rural places’ 1. He further mentions that our lives are perhaps still governed by ‘a certain number of oppositions…that we regard as simple givens’ and that the sacred is still out there as hidden presence, nurturing these oppositions 2. Foucault wants to point out that the space in which we live is a space that is ‘…in itself, a heterogeneous space. In other words, we do not live in a kind of void, inside of which we could place individuals and things. We do not live inside a void that could be colored with diverse shades of light, we live inside a set of relations that delineates sites which are irreducible to one another and absolutely not superimposable to one another.’ 3 Space is heterogeneous, space is relations and one could describe different sites via the cluster of relations that allows them to be defined. Foucault’s interest lays not in ‘normal’ sites but in the ones related to ‘...all the other sites, but in such a way as to suspect, neutralize, or invent the set of relations that they happen to designate, mirror, or reflect. These spaces as it were, which are linked with all the others, which however contradict all the other sites...’ 4 There are two main types of these sites. First, there are the ‘utopias’, society presented in a perfected form, fundamentally unreal spaces. Second there are the ‘heterotopias’, ‘a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted’. 5 Foucault tries to elaborate the principle of heterotopias in comparison to utopias and uses the mirror as example to do so: ‘The mirror is, after all, a utopia, since it is a placeless place. In the mirror, I see myself there where I am not, in an unreal, virtual space that opens up behind the surface… But it is also a heterotopia in so far as the mirror does exist in reality… From the standpoint of the mirror I discover my absence from the place where I am since I see myself over there… it makes this place that I occupy…at once absolutely real, connected with all the space that surrounds it, and absolutely unreal, since in order to be perceived it has to pass through this virtual point which is over there.’ 6 Six principles are given by Foucault to create insight in heterotopias. ‘The first principle is that there is probably not a single culture in the world that fails to constitute heterotopias…But the heterotopias obviously take quite varied forms, and perhaps no one absolutely universal form of heterotopia would be found.’ As an example, Foucault mentions places like ‘elsewhere’ and ‘nowhere’, places reserved for individuals who are, in relation to society and to the human environment in which they live, in a state of crisis or other specific situation. Foucault describes these ‘heterotopias without geographical markers’ as crises heterotopias, privileged, sacred or forbidden places.7 ‘The second principle of this description of heterotopias is that a society, as its history unfolds, can make an existing heterotopia function in a very different fashion’. To set an example, Foucault chooses the cemetery and 1 Foucault. M, (1967) 1984, p. 113 2 Ibid., p. 115 3 Ibid., p. 115-116 4 Ibid., p. 116 5 Ibid., p. 116-117 6 Ibid., p. 117 7 Ibid., p. 118
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
44
ROYAL FLUSH
explains that it ‘…is certainly a place unlike ordinary cultural spaces’, connected with all the sites of the society because each family has relatives in the cemetery but it is also a place that once was ‘…the sacred and immortal heart of the city…’ and over time, turned into ‘…the other city, where each family possesses its dark resting place.’8 ‘Third principle. The heterotopia is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible’. Foucault uses the theatre, cinema and garden as examples, starting with the theatre which is capable of showing ‘…a whole series of places that are foreign to one another...’ continuing with the cinema where ‘…on a two-dimensional screen, one sees the projection of a three-dimensional space…’ finishing with gardens as oldest example ‘that take the form of contradictory sites…the garden is a rug onto which the whole world comes to enact its symbolic perfection, and the rug is a sort of garden that can move across space). The garden is the smallest parcel of the world and then it is the totality of the world.’ 9 ‘Fourth principle. Heterotopias are most often linked to slices in time…’. Foucault mentions again the cemetery, where the individual can find both the loss of life and quasi-eternity. He distinguishes between heterotopias of indefinitely accumulating time and on the contrary heterotopias linked ‘to time in its most flowing, transitory, precarious aspect, to time in the mode of the festival.’ Describing the first type, Foucault presents museums and libraries as heterotopias ‘…in which time never stops building up and topping its own summit…’, showing ‘…the will to enclose in one place all times, all epochs, all forms, all tastes…’. The other type is not oriented towards the eternal but are rather absolutely temporal. The fairground for example, teeming once or twice a year with stands, but also the quite new vacation villages, offering three weeks of primitive living for inhabitants of the city. Where these two types of heterotopia come together ‘…the experience is just as much the rediscovery of time, it is as if the entire history of humanity reaching back to its origin were accessible in a sort of immediate knowledge.’ 10 ‘Fifth principle. Heterotopias always presuppose a system of opening and closing that both isolates them and makes them penetrable. In general, the heterotopic site is not freely accessible like a public place.’ There are two types within this principle: first the type were entry is compulsory, like in prisons or barracks and second the type where entering individuals have to submit to rights and purifications such as the hammam of the Moslems or Scandinavian saunas. Others seem to be pure and simple openings, but are generally hiding curious exclusions. Foucault gives as explanation the example of the famous bedrooms that existed on the great farms of Brazil and elsewhere in South America. The entry door, meant for uninvited guests, did not lead to the room where the family lived, but to the bedroom where one could overstay the night. ‘Everyone can enter into the heterotopic sites, but in fact that is only an illusion - we think we enter where we are, by the very fact that we enter, excluded.’ Another example for this type of heterotopia could perhaps be found in ‘the famous American motel rooms where a man goes with his car and his mistress and where illicit sex is both absolutely sheltered and absolutely hidden, kept isolated without however being allowed out in the open.’ 11 ‘Sixth principle. The last trait of heterotopias is that they have a function in relation to all the space that remains’. The function unfolds between two extreme poles: ‘Either their role is to create a space of illusion that exposes every real space…’ or ‘, their role is to create a space that is other, another real space, as perfect, as meticulous, as well arranged as ours is messy, ill constructed, and jumbled’. The heterotopia of illusion 8 Foucault. M, (1967) 1984, p. 119-120 9 Ibid., p. 120-121 10 Ibid., p. 121-122 11 Ibid., p. 122-123
45
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
ROYAL FLUSH
and the heterotopia of compensation. The first is sketched by the brothel, where your illusions receive a body, a touchable shape, where unreality becomes reality. The second is explained by colonization, perfect other places than familiar society. 12 Foucault’s manuscripts conclude with the metaphor of the boat as ultimate heterotopia, related to all six heterotopian principles, being both ‘…the great instrument of economic development…’ and ‘the greatest reserve of the imagination’. The heterotopia ‘par excellence’. 13 The way Foucault describes his vision of heterotopias and his six principles leave room for imagination. He does not name specific sites as examples, but elaborates mere typologies in his explanation. The image occurs in the readers head and therefore will be different to everyone, precisely as every society has heterotopias in their own form, like Foucault explains. He is very careful in his comments and examples, mostly stating about what ‘can/ could be’ instead of what ‘is/must be’ and therefore not every answer is given, mystery is not unravelled but only revealed.
PERCEPTION, MEMORY AND TRADITION The book ‘Collage city’, starts with a chapter about utopia, mentioning following quote by Ernst Cassirer: ‘Where we do not reflect on myth but truly live in it there is no cleft between the actual reality of perception and the world of mythical fantasy.’ 14 Would the same be true when the myth would be replaced by society and the statement would have been: ‘Where we do not reflect on society but truly live in it there is no cleft between the actual reality of perception and the world of social fantasy.’? Are we blinded by the ordinary? Maybe we are. In that case, we might need something from outside the ordinary, something extraordinary, to question the ordinary. Heterotopias mystery might be capable of doing so. This book further describes man freeing himself from the community of the plant and the animal, by creating an enclosure which is purely human, a civil space. But this space is elaborated as an empty space which becomes limited and outlined, set apart from the limitless (maybe ‘other’) space outside. So man might free himself from the community of the plant and the animal but is still bound by the rules of his own community in which spaces are seen as voids that can be both filled and outlined.15 Foucaults manuscript argues this statement, declaring the heterogeneous character of space. Although we might be bound by the rules of our society, Collage city mentions an interesting aspect of our society namely our history. ‘… the chimpanzee and the orang-utan are distinguished from man not by what is known strictly speaking as intelligence, but because they have far less memory. Every morning the poor beasts have to face almost total oblivion of what they lived through the day before…. Similarly, the tiger of today is identical with that of six thousand years ago, each one having to begin his life as a tiger from the beginning as if none had existed before him… Breaking the continuity with the past, is a lowering of man and a plagiarism of the orang-utan.‘ 16 12 Foucault. M, (1967) 1984, p. 123 13 Ibid., p. 124 14 Rowe. C & Koetter. F, 1990, p. 9 15 Ibid., p. 50 16 Ibid., p. 118
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
46
ROYAL FLUSH
Experience creates the ability of society’s development. This could mean that every question we answer, raises new questions. We learn from the answer of the old question, we develop, we change and we are capable of asking a new question. It seems that we want to understand everything, and step by step, we get further. This is more elaborated when the book speaks about tradition: ‘…tradition is related to a felt need for a structured social environment; tradition is the critical vehicle for the betterment of society; the ‘atmosphere’ of any given society is connected with tradition: and tradition is somewhat akin to myth, or – to say in other words – specific traditions are somehow incipient theories which have the value, however imperfectly, of helping to explain society’ 17
Tradition is not a space, place or site and can therefore be not a heterotopia, but it is related to them, both criticizing society and overlapping different times and spaces. If tradition could be a site, it could be besides a society explaining tool, a heterotopia.
BALANCE In the book ‘Other spaces: The affair of the heterotopia’, Victor Burgin speaks about ‘other spaces’: ‘between the anecdotal expression of ‘personal feelings’ and the abstractions of political discourse we must interpellate the discursive space of that ‘other locality’ of which Freud spoke that place, as Jacques Lacan put it, ‘between perception and consciousness.’ 18 There always seem to be two sides and with heterotopia, it is not about the one side or the other, what matters most is the very thing that lays in between both sides. Further, Kari Jormakka states that ‘Foucault’s implication that the real or the normal would not exist without the abnormal is supported by many cultural practices all over the world.’ This balance is explained with examples from the King Bushmen, the Yanomamo Indians and the Greek. Besides that, this balance is also shown in Greek architecture where city walls established the inside as sacred and the outside as wilderness. 19 So balance might be indeed a very important factor to our society, creating the need of the extraordinary when we are familiar with the ordinary.
APPROACHING HETEROTOPIA The approach of Michiel Dehaene and Lieven de Cauter in their book ‘Heterotopia and the city: public space in a postcivil society’ is completely different from the other approaches of heterotopia. It seems that their quest to understanding heterotopia demands a full answer. They state that ‘In our contemporary world heterotopia is everywhere. Museums, theme parks, malls, holiday resorts, wellness hotels, festival markets – the entire city is becoming ‘heterotopian’. Heterotopia has, indeed, become very obvious and central in our society’ 20 The book elaborates all kinds of spaces as examples of Foucault’s principles about heterotopia such as specific vacation parks and shopping malls, trying to explain the obviousness of the heterotopia and their relation to public space. Also theoretical history us used to explain Foucault’s theory about heterotopia by using Hippodamus’ triad of spaces, where heterotopia would be the third space of the triad, ‘…neither political (or public) nor economical 17 Rowe. C & Koetter. F, 1990, p. 122 18 Ritter. R & Knaller-Vlay. B. 1998, p. 49 19 Ibid., p. 126 20 Dehaene. M & de Cauter. L, 2008, p. 5
47
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
ROYAL FLUSH
(or private) space.’ 21 Also the theories of Soja and Lefebvre are used to explain heterotopia, being ‘…particular spaces of representation ‘linked to the clandestine or underground side of social life’ which retain ‘a partial unknowability… mystery and secretiveness’’ 22 As great as both the quantity and quality of the information in this book might are, they go beyond the essence of heterotopia. This method approaches heterotopia as if they are ordinary spaces, sensible by the rules of normal society. Therefore, every space that is explained and elaborated with specific, visible and touchable examples, cannot be a heterotopia. This is why the first statement about heterotopia that have become obvious in our society, cannot be true since extraordinary and mysterious are key elements. It is not the example, but the principle explained and elaborated by the example which could create understanding of heterotopias. A heterotopian site can be found and thereby create insight in the system of heterotopian spaces, but when one starts with the principles and analytically searches for matching sites, the mystery and therefore an essential part of the heterotopias character and function will be lost. No questions are raised since the example is already explained and thereby the example becomes a ‘normal’ site, part of ‘normal’ society. It’s not the space as filled void that shows heterotopia, the point is a cluster of relations with space as its body. Heterotopia is not all cemeteries because Foucault gives a cemetery as example to explain heterotopias, what matters is the relation that space can contain, connecting it with all spaces. Heterotopia is not all theatres because Foucault gives a theatre as example to explain them, it’s about the capability of juxtaposing several spaces within one space. Heterotopia is not the mirror or the reflecting image, what matters is the lesson of the mirror and the image. What matters is if we understand and are capable of seeing beyond the ordinary.
CONCLUSION HETEROTOPIA The question about the definition of heterotopia stays, like in the case of defining fringes, a quite hard one to answer, since heterotopia play with our tools to define. There is much written about heterotopia and our curiosity of the thing we do not understand, moreover the will of greater understanding has driven us to search and find about this topic. If we want to be critical about ourselves, our society, our spaces, we need something else, others, other societies and other spaces within our own society. The fact that we constantly are driven to learn will keep driving us in our searches and quests. This process will never end, because as long as we know the familiar, we will not know the unfamiliar and we will fight for getting to know it. We need heterotopian spaces to question the reality and normality of what we define as real and normal. Society will never fully understand its heterotopian spaces, since it is in heterotopias nature to be ‘other’, different and mysterious. The understanding of each heterotopian space will firstly turn it into an ordinary part of society, since the system of society has digested the heterotopian system and its question or critique is answered. Secondly, understanding of the heterotopia will change, develop the society and thereby develop the ‘ordinary’ because of the knowledge brought by the understanding of the heterotopia. Thirdly, new heterotopias will evolve, the next question is asked, since every unique society (a developing society is a different society with every step in development it takes) has its own, unique heterotopias, and evolution of the ordinary means, for the sake of balance, evolution of the extraordinary. Unless balance is the very thing that blinds us. Then, we might find a heterotopia showing us its deception and questioning or criticizing it. 21 Dehaene. M & de Cauter. L, 2008, p. 90 22 Ibid., p. 82
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
48
ROYAL FLUSH
FRINGES AND HETEROTOPIA Fringe places and heterotopia are not two words describing the same phenomenon, but considering some characteristic aspects there seems to appear a comparison in which the heterotopia presents itself as the excessive version of the fringe. The questions asked by heterotopian spaces seem to go deeper than the fringes critical attitude and if the fringe does contain a ‘mystery factor’ of some degree there can be stated that heterotopia possess a mystery factor stronger than the one defining the fringe. Heterotopia seem to be both harder to find and more difficult to experience at a completely conscious level. Heterotopia lead a hidden and disguised existence, vanishing at the moment they are discovered and their secrets are revealed, leaving the space behind. This is possible since they are no homogeneous spaces as we are familiar with, being the voids that can be filled; they happen to be heterogeneous spaces, relations connecting all spaces. After losing its heterotopian soul, the space as homogeneous space retains its original appearance and very often its original function but stops being a heterotopia. This is quite different from the fringes existence. When a fringe is discovered, which is not as hard as with heterotopia, and society chooses to take over the space, the fringe does not leave the space to go somewhere else, but is truly destroyed. One could say that heterotopia (as heterogeneous spaces) cannot be exterminated from our world, but fringes (as homogeneous spaces) on the other hand, can indeed because, according to our common means of perceiving and experiencing space, the heterotopia is no space, but a statement represented by space; the fringe on the other hand, is the very space itself. This makes fringe spaces in the world of our perception more vulnerable and at the same time more precious than heterotopia. The heterotopian spaces will always exist whether we try to destroy them or not, but fringes, after their discovery and moreover the discovery of their unique qualities, must be maintained and preserved since we are capable of experiencing them as actual spaces. Fringes and heterotopias are two different phenomena, not excluding each others existence. In fact, one could say that when a heterotopia could act as a spaces soul - capable of taking over the already existing spaces soul and a fringe is the space itself, a fringe space which would be given a heterotopian soul could become a stronger fringe, a fringe more capable of showing its qualities. The heterotopia would reinforce the characteristics of the fringe. What if a heterotopia, being space as the sum of relations, would find its accommodation in a fringe, being space as a filled or even still empty void?
49
WHAT IS A FRINGE?
OSTROV STVANICE
Royal Flush
Stvanices Waterfall Casino
ROYAL FLUSH
OSTROV STVANICE
52
ROYAL FLUSH
OSTROV STVANICE
Just after the streaming water of the Vltava River passed its meandering way through the heart of Prague’s city centre, it is cleaved by an island called Ostrov Stvanice, the Stvanice Island. The studio called this island a fringe in the city of Prague, a fringe worth being celebrated and not to be swallowed by its surrounding urban tissue and thereby vanish in the common system of its environment. In order to celebrate the Stvanice Island as a fringe, different elements/ aspects giving the island its fringe character had to be found. The discovery of these fringe elements serve two purposes: firstly, confirming the assumption that Stvanice Island is an actual fringe, worthy of celebration and secondly, offering a method of reinforcing, celebrating the fringe. The island and its environment were already analysed by the studio which documented its results in the book ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’. Some of the findings, showing clues of the island’s fringe elements are mentioned in this document.
53
OSTROV STVANICE
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 11: Historical image of view at Stvanice Island
Img. 13: Stvanice flooding analyses
OSTROV STVANICE
54
ROYAL FLUSH
HISTORY Analyses of the island’s history show that besides a military function, Stvanice Island was used as a retreat for Prague’s citizen. In the 16th century, it was used as an island for hunting (this is where the name Stvanice comes from), but in the 18th and 19th it found its retreating functionality in the use of entertainment with animal games, theatrical performances, concerts, fireworks and dancing. From the end of the 19th century, sports became the new retreat housed on the island starting with ice skating and later dominated by the sport of tennis, which today is still the main sports facility of Stvanice.1
Img. 12: Historical image Stvanice Island
FLOODING Ostrov Stvanice being an island results in its strong relation with the Vltava River and its risks of the natural rise and fall cycle. This cycle is predictable which makes it quite safe and manageable, but on the other hand is also known for its extreme forms which happen every five, twenty and hundred years. The analysis of Stvanice’s floodings show the Vlatava’s rise every five, twenty and hundred years, being respectively 0-1 meters, 1-5 meters, 5-6 meters and 6-10 meters. The influence of these water risings is mapped for the analysis showing the related flooded areas.2
1 Poortman. J, Sonnema. S, Konig dos Santos. M, (2013), p.148 2 Van de Venne. L, Haalen. L, (2013), p.154 .
Img. 14: Vltava flooding analysis
55
OSTROV STVANICE
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 15: Stvanice built-unbuilt analysis
Img. 17: Stvanice infrastructure analysis
OSTROV STVANICE
56
ROYAL FLUSH
BUILT-UNBUILT This typical analysis shows the empty, void character of the island and river, surrounded by a filled, quite dense urban tissue. Naturally, the river is visualised as a void since there are no buildings at all placed in the river water; but the island located in the river accommodates some small buildings like two villas, a former cafĂŠ, a small skating area and a larger building being the tennis stadium. 3
INFRASTRUCTURE/ACCESSIBILITY
Img. 16: Prague built-unbuilt analysis
The analyses of the infrastructure both on the island itself and the surrounding area show two bridges crossing the river and Stvanice Island. The largest bridge - being a great and important connection for the traffic stream leading from the north towards the south of the country - contains car traffic, tram traffic and a pedestrian path while the smaller bridge purely functions as train traffic. The only connections between the island and the river banks are a bridge exit for cars and pedestrians at the east side of the bridge and two extra exits for pedestrians on the bridge’s west side. Both tram and train are not capable of dropping passengers on the island since there are no stations or stops and also the metro passing under the island does not contain a station in that area. Although a lock/sluice system is located on the island, there is no port creating access to the island and therefore Stvanice is not accessible by boat. On the island itself, little accommodation for traffic is possible. One road leading from the great bridge towards the train bridge is meant for car use, and a small amount of pedestrian paths connect one end of the island with the other.4 3 Donkers. T, Krajnak. M, Kierkels. S, (2013), p.161. 4 Ibid., p.166.
Img. 18: Stvanices invironmental infrastructure analysis
57
OSTROV STVANICE
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 19: Stvanices green space analysis
Img. 21: View at Stvanice from north river bank
OSTROV STVANICE
58
ROYAL FLUSH
GREEN SPACE The island possesses a large amount of green space compared to its urban environment and can almost be seen as one great park, connecting the greenspace on the river banks located on its north-west and south-east side.5 The full analyses of Ostrov Stvanice and its environment are to be consulted in the studio’s book.
Img. 20: Stvanices green space character
ATMOSPHERE The atmosphere on Stvanice Island, the soul of its space so to say, could not be analysed from maps and other data but had to be felt in actual physical presence of its space. In order to do so, an excursion to the site was planned and executed during the spring of the studio’s research period. During this excursion and site exploring, some interesting discoveries were done: Firstly, the introvert character of Stvanice Island proved itself being quite strong and determinative in its appearance. Viewed from the outside, it shows remarkable little of its secrets since almost everything is concealed by its many trees. Almost every building is barely visible while one is not positioned in the fringe space itself, but is spectating from outside. A wall of trees on the edges of the island functions as a barrier, hiding its inner atmosphere and qualities. This introvert character results in the fact that the island is not an empty void compared to its surroundings but has, especially in its core, quite a dense atmosphere. It seems that the river is the void, and the island is just another type of dense tissue being not urban but natural, laying in this void. 5 Donkers. T, Krajnak. M, Kierkels. S, (2013), p.169.
Img. 22: Stvanice wall of trees
59
OSTROV STVANICE
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 23: Stvanices tennis stadium
Img. 24: different views at Stvanices dam
OSTROV STVANICE
60
ROYAL FLUSH
Secondly, the island manages to play with the spectators perception, since its enclosed character makes it look smaller when one perceives the island from the river banks compared to the size it seems to have while one has entered the island’s domain. Also, the tennis stadium, which is visible and quite present while viewed from the river banks, seems to be vanished or at least camouflaged at the moment the island is explored, until one is standing right in front of it. The island is capable of surprising since every step creates new discoveries like new buildings, new sites and new views. Its misleading and surprising quality is strongest expressed by the river water in between Stvanice’s dam and the great bridge crossing the river. Viewed from the bridge, the riverbanks or anywhere outside the fringe, this part of the river is just streaming over the dam, falling down more than four meters and flowing along the island, waiting to be reunited with its cut-off part which is streaming through the dams on the other side of the island. Viewed from the outside of the fringe, the river can be seen as one space flowing under the bridges and around the islands of Prague being a continuous space; but when the river water is seen from the perspective if the fringe itself, the water flowing over Stvanice’s dam and falling down in the lower area of the river, becomes part of the fringe space until it flows under the great bridge. Spectated from the fringe’s perspective, the dam is no longer just a small step of the great, continuous Vltava River, but becomes a wall being one of the fringe’s borders, the very separation of the fringe space and the river space coming from Prague’s city centre. Viewed from outside the fringe, Stvanice is an island surrounded by river water, but from the fringes perspective, the river space behind Stvanice’s dam is part of the fringe.
Img. 25: Looking through Stvanices train bridge
Img. 26: Stvanices hidden Villa, located east from the great bridge
61
OSTROV STVANICE
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 27: Stvanices upstream part, viewed from the river water
Img. 29: Stvanices fringe space at the river
OSTROV STVANICE
62
ROYAL FLUSH
Thirdly, there appears to be a tension between visibility and accessibility on the island. Like mentioned before and also experienced during the excursion, the island cannot be accessed without effort. It takes a sharp eye to not miss the car exit on the bridge, entering the island and also the pedestrian exits require quite a gift for directions. The visibility aspect becomes clear when, despite of the closed character of the island, it also happens to contain an open part, namely the upstream end of Stvanice. Facing the city centre and cleaving the upstream part of the Vltava River, this side with a proud and monumental power plant on top is almost completely surrounded by water, visible from all around and only accessible by the three quite difficult to find exits of the far back located bridge. This side of the island is celebrating its maximal visible position with a proud, almost cocky attitude and contradicts with being barely reachable by the use of minimal accessibility. It is creating a feeling of exclusiveness. Img. 28: Stvanices upstream part, viewed from the south river bank
Img. 30: one of Stvanices few pedestrian accessibilities
Img. 31: view towards the city centre from Stvanices upstream part
63
OSTROV STVANICE
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 32: Stvanices upstream part at night
OSTROV STVANICE
64
ROYAL FLUSH
OSTROV STVANICE AS FRINGE The Vltava River is Prague’s main void, but not a fringe since a fringe is more than just different to its surroundings. The island seems to contain more than just a different appearance while it hides its treasures for the passers by and demands a closer look if one wishes to see its qualities. Its tree walls could be, up to some level, compared to the Kowloon Walled City facades, showing its introvert character and protecting its inner atmosphere. Its history of entertainment is, up to some level, like Coney Island’s history except for the experimental function Coney Island possessed. The Vltava River acts as the fringe’s surrounding border, being strong enough to separate and isolate, guarantee its limited accessibility but transparent enough to play with its visibility. A changing border, since the water of Vltava’s river rises and falls, decreasing and increasing the dimensions of the fringe space. An exceptional border, since it seems to be a continuous one if seen from the outside, from above, but partly fringe space when perceived from the fringe’s perspective, showing an extra border - the fringe’s real edge at that specific location which happens to be Stvanice’s dam. Its ability to surprise and show something new at every step one takes while entering the fringe space, raises a question by its visitors, a question asking: ‘What is this place?’ It seems that Ostrov Stvanice is a fringe since it happens to contain almost every one of the previously mentioned, fringe describing elements, namely an exceptional appearance compared to its surroundings, a boarder of some kind, a mystery factor related to its atmosphere and a daring attitude towards its environment. The only element it is missing would be a friction or dissonance while being related to the authorities of its surroundings. Although the authorities are working on plans to change the island - by creating more accessibility options and greater commercial functionality for instance - there is no tangible tension between the island and its environment since it is quite easily overlooked and could almost be forgotten. Besides the missing of this element, some of the present factors are not very strong in functionality. The island’s mystery factor for example is not very convincing. Also the daring and challenging attitude towards it surroundings could be increased to a more exciting and sensible level, especially while considering the fact that facing the Vltava River - being an exceptional and dynamic border - is quite a challenge. The fringe space is already there, but its soul could use a stronger heterotopian touch. Ostrov Stvanice is a fringe worthy of being celebrated, although not yet a very strong one. The celebration of it, if executed wisely by the use of its characteristics, fringe creating elements and already present soul, could reinforce its character and qualities.
65
OSTROV STVANICE
WHAT IS A CASINO?
Royal Flush
Stvanices Waterfall Casino
ROYAL FLUSH
WHAT IS A CASINO?
68
ROYAL FLUSH
WHAT IS A CASINO?
Before searching for answers to this question first another question: ‘Why a casino?’ should be answered in which this specific programme proves itself being capable of celebrating the fringe of Stvanice Island. The fact that the programme has to give strong and clear proposals to the three issues ‘Sculpture, Scenography and Structure’ is an always present assignment, since every programme contains a scenography and structure and can be given a specific sculpture. The challenge of the programme in this case is the responding to the studios main theme, being the celebration of the fringe, by the use of the programme’s given sculpture, scenography and structure. But before the these three issues have to prove themselves the programme as functionality in itself needs to be capable of celebrating the fringe and should have been selected for its capabilities to do so. At first sight a casino seems to be the creation of a different world, a place that could raise the earlier mentioned question: ‘What is this place?’ or ‘Where exactly am I?’, a place containing the so called ‘mystery factor’. According to Justin Henderson giving the example of the Las Vegas Strip, “The design of Las Vegas casinos always depended on fantasy...”, and “…the lurid neon sleaze of the Strip and its sin-filled casinos reinvented itself as the worlds center of entertainment architecture...” 1 Considering Foucault’s sixth principle in which the heterotopia ‘… have a function in relation to all the space that remains’, a casino programme might suffice. Foucault describes one of the two options for this principle as the role of heterotopia to ‘…create a space of illusion that exposes every real space…’ and clarifies this with the example of the brothel, ‘…where your illusions receive a body, a touchable shape, where unreality becomes reality.’ The very same thing might be applicable to the casino, where dreams are chased by the thrill of winning, where everything seems to be possible and reachable, all in the environment of a space as fairylike world in itself, isolated from the outside. Both the casino’s ability to play with perception, to open a world of fantasy and its referring to Stvanice’s history of entertainment indicate the possibility of a casino celebrating the fringe and thereby give arguments for the further research and examination of this typical programme. Moreover, the casino might provide the character of a heterotopia and thereby reinforce the strength of Stvanice’s fringe character. The answer to the question: ‘Why a casino?’ can already be answered, leading the research back to the question: ‘What is a casino?’
1 Henderson. J, 1999, p.9 69
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
WHAT IS A CASINO?
70
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES In order to find out the functionality of a casino, the question: ‘What is a casino?’ was treated in the same way as the question: ‘What is a fringe?’. By the use of case studies, being different casino examples, some remarkable aspects in the world of casino design were found. Fifteen of the largest casinos in the world were analysed on their characteristics. Firstly, their footprint was placed on the Stvanice Island, to get an impression of their dimensions. Secondly, their appearances were compared in a search for a typical casino architecture stereotype. Thirdly, some of their floor plans were analysed to discover which part of the floor functions as the actual casino floor in relation to the other functions of the building complexes. Finally, their programme characteristics were scheduled and compared in order to find a relation between their size, the number hotel rooms, the number of gaming tables and slot machines and the number of restaurants and bars. Further, the location of the casinos and, when present, their specialty were mapped in this schedule.
CONCLUSION CASE STUDIES Img. 33: birds eye Stvanice Island
71
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Footprint
WHAT IS A CASINO?
Venetian Macau
City of dreams
Foxwood Resort
Casino Porte
Tusk Rio Casino Resort
MGM Macao
72
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Footprint
Sands Macau
MGM Grand
Casino Lisboa
Bellagio
New York New York
Stratosphere Tower
Img. 34: birds eye Stvanice Island, filled with casino footprints
73
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Appearance
Venetian Macau
City of dreams
Foxwood Resort
Casino Porte
Tusk Rio Casino Resort WHAT IS A CASINO?
MGM Macao 74
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Appearance
Img. 35: Casino Facades
Sands Macau
MGM Grand
Casino Lisboa
Bellagio
New York New York
Stratosphere Tower 75
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Floorplan
WHAT IS A CASINO?
76
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Floorplan
Img. 36: Casino Floorplans
77
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Floorplan
WHAT IS A CASINO?
78
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Floorplan
Img. 37: Casino Floorplans
79
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Floorplan
WHAT IS A CASINO?
80
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Floorplan
Img. 38: Casino Floorplans
81
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Floorplan
Img. 39: Casino Floorplans
WHAT IS A CASINO?
82
ROYAL FLUSH
CASE STUDIES Characteristics
Img. 40: Comparing Casino Scheme
83
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 41: Las Vegas Strip at night
WHAT IS A CASINO?
84
ROYAL FLUSH
CONCLUSION CASE STUDIES The information provided by the casino case studies shows typical similarities between the different casinos but at the same time creates insight in great differences between the cases. The dimensions and shapes of their appearance show an extreme diversity and also a strong relation between the square metres of gaming area, the number of hotel rooms, the number of gaming tables and slot machines and the number of restaurants and bars seems to be impossible to find. Although they all were designed in different scales and shapes, the functionality of the casino floors happen to be similar in almost every case, namely its functionality as an active traffic space, a connection between other functions of the casino programme. Also the position of the casino floors is mostly found to be quite close to the entrance of the building complex if not directly behind it. Finally, besides their differences in scale and shape, the architecture of their appearance seems to possess a universal will of showing luxury and drawing attention, reflected in the greatness of their facades, ornamented by polished materials to shine at day and lights of all colours to glow at night. All of this to serve their ambition of attracting as many visitors as possible and express their greatness to their environment. This expression of greatness is combined with an expression of uniqueness. When more casinos are positioned in a city, they all seem to possess the will of standing out, being different from the others by the use of typical names and an accessory themed style, making visitors and passers by referring to their imagination and remember the uniqueness of the casino. The casino welcomes its guests, not into the building, but into a completely different world.
85
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
INTERVIEWS Besides the theoretical research concerning the phenomenon of the casino, also the practical aspect concerning the actual functionality in the everyday life of the programme needed to be explored. In order to get more information about practical aspects within the system of a casino, two experts in the field were approached and asked about their casino world. The resume of their stories provided some important clues and tools, essential in the designing of the casino programme: Geesje Burema Floormanager at Jacks Casino, Eindhoven ‘A casino floor plan is a very complicated thing since it involves a lot of different factors, which is why the creation of it concerns many people, spectating from different perspectives. It is also a dynamic thing and changes over time, so the perfect floor plan cannot exist, it is all about compromising. A fine working casino system needs different zones because not every visitor is attracted by the same atmosphere. The plan containing the positions of the slot machines and tables needs to take into account that different ‘cultures’ will occur which is no problem as long as the building provides spaces for these different cultures. The elderly visitors for example mostly possess a quite constant cash flow, resulting in often visits and the spending of a quite constant amount of money. These visitors are the most reliable type and we use colours like red and orange to create a soft and home-like atmosphere, the sphere which attracts this typical elderly audience. Youth on the other hand is depending on its salaries, resulting in less constant but quite patterned (beginning of the month) visits and a more aggressive style of gaming. This type of audience is normally more attracted to the darker colours like blue and black, creating a cooler atmosphere. Besides this difference, there is also a difference in the amount of money people are willing to spend, the carefulness and confidence of the visitors. This is why the games closer to the entrance of the casino mostly require a lower threshold, so the new visitors, unfamiliar with the system of a casino can start playing without crossing the entire floor and with quite a low amount of money. On the other hand, the so called ‘high rollers’, the very confident group, spending the big money so to say, mostly prefer zones further from the entrance to get a feeling of exclusiveness, giving them the possibility to play big without being bothered by excitement seeking visitors. Different zones are important in facilitating different cultures entering the casino and by designing these different zones the complete overview of the floor is something to take into account. Visitors do not want to get lost inside the building, so a good transition between the different atmospheres is highly desirable. Also the transportation towards the building is important. People need to know how to get at the location, because if they don’t, naturally they will not get there at all. Finally, the atmosphere inside the building is one of the most important factors of its functionality and the greatest responsibility of this sphere lies with the building itself, and not with the machines or tables. Combining a pleasant sphere and reinforcing it with high service and a feeling of safety for its visitors, a casino system could be successful.’
WHAT IS A CASINO?
86
ROYAL FLUSH
Jeroen Peperkamp Marketing and Sales manager at Holland Casino, Eindhoven ‘It is all about the feeling that visitors get when they are in the casino, experiencing everything it has to offer. Of course, a safe environment for the game is important which can be provided by a desk and reception for the casinos guests near the entrance of the building, where everyone has to be checked in before entering the casino floor. In that way, unwanted guests - who have, in the past, proven themselves being unable to handle themselves during the thrill of the game – can be denied of access at the very entrance of the building, providing the guests a feeling of safety. The entrance in general is very important for the functioning of the casino, since it makes possible visitors decide to go further, which is what we would like them to do, or to go back, which we would like to prevent. So the experience of entering the building is crucial and when excitement is created at the entrance, the further exploration of the building is quite likely. The mapping of the floor plan normally should result in a logical, zoned and restful entirety, supported by the use of warm, calm colours and carpeted floors combined with relatively dark coloured ceilings for a cozy atmosphere. Different heights and colours taints can provide the different zones of a unique and recognizable character, contributing to the guest’s orientation and resulting in the fact that less signs of directions are needed and the total plan becomes easier to understand. Restaurants and bars happen to work very well when they have the ability of creating an overview of the casino floor(s) so when the guests choose to take a brake on the gaming, they can oversee space and still be part of the total experience. Subtle height differences can already provide this overview, guaranteeing that the guest is never bored and feels connected to what is happening in the casino. The possibility of a live performance is very desirable, since it increases the actual exciting happenings on the casino floor. There is no need for a gigantic stage, but creating the possibility of placing a small platform, which does not constantly have to be visible or used, is increasing the liveliness of the casino floor. Normally the interior of a casino tolerates as little daylight as possible, since time is not an important factor and moreover, the nice and cozy feeling which normally comes in the evening or at night, should not be destroyed by the light of a bright morning or afternoon. By keeping the daylight out, the atmosphere in the casino is not dependent on its most desirable part of the day, namely the evening or night. A fine working back office is crucial for the functionality of the casino. On the floor itself, the casino space is the traffic space, but it is preferable that employees are capable of fast transportation without crossing the entire floor. Also supplies and other materials should have the possibility to find their destination in the building without bothering or being bothered by the guests. The back office is also used as private space for the employees of the casino and should satisfy their needs. Finally, the guests are not ‘gambling’ in the casino; we choose to call it social gaming. We want the outside world to know that visiting a casino is not taboo anymore. The thrill and excitement of the game and the social interaction between the visitors (and staff) can perfectly contribute to a fun and entertaining experience.’
87
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
WHAT IS A CASINO?
88
ROYAL FLUSH
LEARNING FROM VENTURI
While searching for more answers related to the casino questions, a more theoretical field was approached by the use of Robert Venturi’s ‘Learning from Las Vegas’, a book reviewing his broad analysis of the Las Vegas Strip and its casinos. The system of the casino designs is discussed with references to their location, typology, architectural appearance and interior among other things. Besides interest in this particular book because of its casino analyses, also the location happened to be an interesting one for further research since the Las Vegas Strip seems to show some of the discovered fringe characteristics. Considering the Strip as a luxurious, utopian-like site being surrounded by a dry and rough desert, it is quite likely to expect some sort of friction between the two completely different atmospheres. It also seems to contain the mystery factor, causing many tourists to visit and experience its remarkable and phenomenal spaces. Finally, because of all the present ‘extraordinarity‘, the soul of the Las Vegas Strip shows remarkably comparable characteristics to Foucault’s sixth principle of heterotopia in creating spaces of illusion. ‘Learning from Las Vegas’ shows the reasoning behind the Strip’s design while constructing and referring to Venturi’s architectural theories. It was selected for its ability of creating an interesting approach to the question: ‘What is a casino?‘.
89
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 42: Directional Space scheme
WHAT IS A CASINO?
90
ROYAL FLUSH
LEARNING FROM VENTURI ‘Learning from the existing landscape is a way of being revolutionary for an architect’ 1 During the search for architectural background information, Robert Venturi’s book ‘Learning from Las Vegas’ became an interesting guide through the world of casino architecture. When one says casino, usually the name Las Vegas comes up quite quickly. Remarkably enough though, the book is not just an analysis of the casinos on the Strip, also the impact of the almost utopian complexes is discussed. Besides architecture as space, Venturi gives an impression of architecture’s role as a symbol when styles and signs become anti spatial and communication is of greater value than the experience of space. This very practical perspective suggests an architecture of bold communication rather than one of subtle expression. 2
Img. 42: book Learning from Las Vegas‘
Venturi relates the use of the Symbol, the Word and the Architecture, revealing that the greater the speed of passers by, the greater the role of both the word and the symbol, decreasing the role of architecture in communication. Through history, speed has increased and architecture seems to be not enough anymore, which in some cases results in the architecture acting as communicating symbol, ‘the Duck’. The book gives a definition of this term by the words of Peter Blake when he stated that the system of space, structure and program can be submerged and distorted by an overall symbolic form. This kind of ‘building becoming sculpture’ is called a duck. On the other hand, where systems of space and structure are directly at the service of program and ornament is applied independently of them, the architecture is called the ‘decorated shed’. So the duck can be seen as a type of building that truly is a symbol and the decorated shed is a conventional shelter, applying symbols. 3
1 Venturi. R, (1977), p.3 2 Ibid., p.8-9 3 Ibid., p.87
Img. 43: Duck versus Decorated Shed
91
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 44: Ceasars Palace
Img. 45: streetview Las Vegas Strip
WHAT IS A CASINO?
92
ROYAL FLUSH
The one does not exclude the other and most buildings show, up to some level, architecture that can contain both a duck and a decorated shed character. Being called one of these names is not a positive given, since it expresses the banality of the use of ornaments and the lack of balance between space, structure, program, sculpture and ornament. Reviewing the appearance of the Strip’s casinos, it is quite easily to remark that this architecture would belong to the decorated sheds. The Las Vegas casinos happen to contain an extreme difference between their frontal facades and their backs. The symbolism and tracery of the facades facing the Strip direction result in an extremely ornamented and thought through composition; on the narrow spaces in between the buildings and the facades directed away from the Strip show mindlessly bare walls and boxes. Venturi states that ‘Casinos whos fronts relate so sensitively to the highway turn their ill-kempt backsides toward the local environment…’ 4 Calling the Strip’s casinos ‘decorated sheds’ could be seen as a negative statement. However, given the location and atmosphere, it is quite a logical response to what is already existing. The competition and the will of being both unique and most desirable is forcing the architecture of the Strip’s casinos to use every possible element in the temptation of passers by. Considering fringe characteristics, it is interesting to see that the Las Vegas casinos aim to show their greatness while facing each other and their own created environment, while their surroundings – the already existing, local environment – is ignored. This goes beyond an introvert character and creating a border between its atmosphere and its surrounding space; this is expressing complete disrespect. The Strip’s ignorance of the outside world returns on a smaller scale in the character of the casino’s interiors. Venturi explains that the lobby is the gambling room, so a different world is experienced from the moment one enters the frontal facade’s door and its typical ‘gambling’ character becomes the visitors new residence. The casino 4 Venturi. R, (1977), p.35
93
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 46: Streetview and built-unbuilt scheme Las Vegas Strip
WHAT IS A CASINO?
94
ROYAL FLUSH
world is a combination of darkness and enclosure to gain privacy, protection, concentration and control inside the building. Because of the interior’s isolated character and created illusions, visitors lose their grip on time and seem to forget where they truly are. All different signs and themes creating the immense diversity on the Strip, shows that people – even architects according to Venturi – have fun with architecture that reminds them of something else. This architecture of reference can be seen as the same architecture once used during the creation of the delirious New York that Koolhaas describes. The Strip seems to use the value of an old cliché in a new context to achieve new meaning and make the common uncommon again, which is why visitors are attracted to it; people are curious and want to experience something new. 5
Img. 47: Analysis Las Vegas Sign
The Las Vegas Strip can be seen as a brutal interference with its natural environment. The total of all signs and symbols facing the Strip create an overwhelming overkill, aiming to attract visitors to be completely locked out of their lives. Because of the great speed provided by the roads, the casinos need a great frontal façade, providing as many tempting elements as possible in order to overcome their competing neighbours. However, this competition is not to blame on its environment, since the space surrounding the city of Las Vegas has been a great desert void long before the city started its founding. Also the high speed of the Strip, causing the remarkable relation between symbol, word and architecture, cannot be the only reason for the Strip’s extreme atmosphere. The fact that all casinos aim for the same thing cause the growth of symbolic expression with every new built or changed casino, transforming them every time, in sheds with greater decoration. But the seemingly chaotic composition of the Strip’s street scene also has its charm since it succeeds to attract many visitors and creates a famous atmosphere. The chain of casino systems seems the opportunity for each casino to reinforce the shared Strip atmosphere. Together, they form the Las Vegas Strip, and the Strip needs their existence. Img. 48: Analysis and comparison Las Vegas Strip casinos
5 Venturi. R, (1977), p.72
95
WHAT IS A CASINO?
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 49: Venetian Macao Interior
Img. 50: MGM Grand Interior
WHAT IS A CASINO?
96
ROYAL FLUSH
CONCLUSION Casinos are found to be quite cocky and self-willing complexes. They do not seem to handle universal rules when it comes to the relation between both the number and proportions of their different programme aspects; but they seem to possess a universal soul of entertainment, luxury and greatness to attract visitors and keep them walking their casino floors as much as possible while creating their atmospheres inside posh facades, hardly comparable to the world outside. Besides all these fairytale like creations of dreams, casino complexes are highly organised machines in need of a well functioning back office. Also the creation of different zones inside is desirable and helps the guests in orientating and moving through the building. Accessibility is a crucial element, since visitors have to actually arrive at the building before they could even choose to access. Considering the Las Vegas casino Strip, there is an interesting relation between the impact of the architectures symbolism, facing the centre of the Strip, and the rest of the casino’s outer appearance. Because of the ornament’s great role in communication, the Strip’s casinos can be called ‘decorated sheds’. Their great extravagant appearances are mainly the result of competition between the different casinos and their individual will to prove their superior qualities, compared to the rest. On the other hand, without this competition, the Strip would not exist in its extraordinary form, proving that besides competing, the casinos also cooperate to maintain and reinforce their shared, exceptional atmosphere. The casino can be seen as a true phenomenon of illusion, capable of creating new experiences that seem to be unreal, questioning the reality of our normal lives. Therefore, the casino is not only suitable for Stvanice Island as interesting programme but its referring atmosphere is moreover playing with our perception and touches our memories. The casino can show us something that makes us refer to something else, but at the same time it is capable of showing it in a completely different context, activating our imagination. The casino possesses a heterotopian power in its ability of criticizing what we know and define as ordinary.
Img. 51: ‘Welcome to Las Vegas‘ sign at night
97
WHAT IS A CASINO?
DESIGN
Royal Flush
Stvanices Waterfall Casino
ROYAL FLUSH
DESIGN
100
ROYAL FLUSH
URBAN MASTER PLAN
During the studio’s group process, different urban master plans were created to guarantee the maintenance of Stvanice Island as fringe site. One of the master plan concepts was ‘The Boulevard’ principle, which increased the accessibility of the island by upgrading the car exit of the great bridge into a double exit for each side of the road and the creation of at least two pedestrian bridges. Also a boat port was planned next to Stvanice’s sluices and a tram stop was to be placed in the middle of the great bridge, above the island. The island was divided into two parts – a natural park on its north side and a boulevard on its south side – separated by a canal, connected to the Vltava River. Dependent on the height of the river water, some parts of the natural park and the boulevard would be flooded and the island would change in shape and accessibility as a result of this rising or lowering water level. A connection with the great bridge and through the buildings of the boulevard was to be made in case of extremely high water. This connection would allow pedestrians to access the island and be safe from the river water even when it would be experiencing its most extreme situations. This master plan would have increased the island’s functionality and connection with its urban environment. Also the fringe character of the island would be increased since the master plan’s tissue and appearance contains a greater exceptionality than the current situation. However, the realisation of the Boulevard master plan would not celebrate the fringe of Stvanice Island but wipe out most of its secrets and replace them by new and stronger elements. The master plan would suggest an almost complete taboo’la raza, and suppress the site to its form willing strategy which can be done everywhere and does not take the unique qualities of the location into account. Moreover, the already to little friction that exist between the island and its environment would be completely deleted since the boulevard would, although its tissue is different, fit perfectly in Prague’s urban system. A full master plan, urban or not, can never be the exception a fringe desires to be when it is surrounded by a metropolis full of master plans and structure. The fact that Stvanice Island is not that structured, is part of its fringe strength and should not be weakened or not to mention be destroyed. In the possession of this statement, after the elaboration of the master plan, the casino programme chose to reject the Boulevard system and return to the original fringe situation of the island. The casino chose to find its settlement within the already existing location and its actual, original, fringe elements. By this choice, the casino programme created the opportunity not to celebrate the new Stvanice Boulevard master plan but the original Stvanice Island as fringe to be reinforced.
101
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
DESIGN
102
ROYAL FLUSH
DESIGN
All findings of the fringe and casino research, the island’s analyses and naturally the studio’s ambition, were used as input elements for the design process which over time led to the final design. During the process of design development, some of these elements have proven themselves more useful and of greater influence than others. This chapter provides the elaboration of these leading elements and thereby explains both the decisions made during the design process and the reasoning behind the final design.
103
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 52: Stvancies dam as fringe border
Img. 53: ‘overlooked‘ fringe space
DESIGN
104
ROYAL FLUSH
FRINGE ELEMENTS The most influential, discovered elements responsible for the fringe characteristics of Stvanice Island were its concealment, its visibility/accessibility contradiction, its attitude and the Vltava River. Concealment because of its introvert character, hiding its beauty for outsiders but showing it piece by piece for those entering the island. Concealment because of the dam, creating on of the fringe’s borders, only visible and tangible as border from the fringe’s perspective. The tempting contradiction between the visibility and accessibility of its upstream part, which can be seen from all around but at the same time is almost entirely surrounded by water and therefore quite difficult to reach. Its proud attitude, causing the friction with an environment that wishes to change it, is shown best by the almost cocky power plant, standing at the water cleaving part of the island, facing the city centre. And finally the Vltava River, acting as the fringe’ss transparent, dynamic, challenging, and strong border. These elements were used and reinforced in order to transform Stvanice Island into a stronger, more exciting fringe.
Img. 54/55: Stvanices head, facing the city centre
105
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH vvv
Img. 56: Stvanice island in sightfield Prague Castle
Img. 57: Stvanice island in sightfield Petrin Tower
Img. 58: Stvanice island in the sightfields
Img. 59: Stvanices head in the sightfields
DESIGN
Img. 60: Casino boundaries field
106
ROYAL FLUSH
POSITION Considering the stream of the river water and the islands position related to the heart of Prague’s urban and historical city centre, the end of Stvanice Island cleaving the upstream part of the river and facing the city centre can be seen as the island’s ‘head’; the end at the downstream part and reunion of the river water, facing mere green space can be seen as the island’s ‘tale’. The most daring and challenging part of the island is its head, containing Stvanice’s useful dam and power plant. Also, considering the casino case studies and Venturi’s analyses, the island’s head as most visible and attention drawing part fits the casino programme. Obviously the powerplant should not be demolished or overruled by the casino, since it acts as a fringe defining element that must be preserved; but on the other hand it is not in a casino’s true nature to be overruled by something else. The power plant and the casino should be allies supporting each other instead of being enemies competing. Given this statement, combined with the quality of Stvanice’s dam and the river water, the casino is placed against the dam and therefore is, side by side with the power plant, surrounded by water, facing the river and city centre and increasing both the experience and awareness of the fringe’s border. The exact position of the casino is realized by the use of Prague’s two main observation posts gaining a great view over both city and river, namely the Prague Castle and the Petrin Tower. The boundaries of the casino’s exact position are a result of the island views provided by these observation posts. A field within the Prague Castle’s sight field and just outside of the Petrin Tower’s sight field describes the final boundaries of the casino’s position. Positioned against Stvanice’s dam and within the boundaries given from the Prague Castle and Petrin Tower, the casino creates the possibility of experiencing the fringes most typical border, which is the dam, without blocking the sight on the fringes greatest border, which is the Vltava River.
Img. 61: Casino Positioned in boundaries field
107
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 61: Stvanices historical fight with the Vltava river
DESIGN
108
ROYAL FLUSH
POWER PLANT/DAM After further research, Stvanice’s power plant and dam are not two completely separated elements but seem to work together as one system. The dam belongs to the power plant and together they both face the forces of the Vltava River and share a rough history in their relation with the river. The power plant was built in the years 1913 and 1914 in connection with the work on the dam. The plant was one of the first concrete constructions in Prague, used for the generating of electrical power. In 1972, it was shut down because of great damage as a result of the Vltava River’s force. In 1984, it was reconstructed to continue its generating function in 1988 and is still functioning at this very moment.1 Considering the typology of the system, one could see the total power plant (including the dam) as the sum of two different parts. The first part is the machine part, which is barely visible – especially when viewed from the upstream direction of the river and the city centre -, consisting of the power regenerating turbines under the artificial head of the island and the dam; the second part is the architectonic service building with its cocky attitude, standing on top of the generators, challenging the river water and facing the city centre.
Img. 62: Stvanice power plants two parts
1 http://www.praguewelcome.cz 109
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
CONCEPT Stvanice Island can be seen as an island of two faces: mostly enclosed and introvert from the outside, but willing to reveal from the inside. Also its proud, urban upstream head and its subtle, natural, downstream tale can be interpreted as two different faces, hardly visible in one single glance. The power plant on the island’s head again can be seen as a system of two faces: a barely visible, water resisting, machine face below with a very visible city daring face on top. Also the dam, part of the power plant, presents itself in two completely different ways: viewed from the upstream river side and the city centre it is almost invisible, but from the fringe’s perspective it is a wall of falling water, more than four meters in height. The concept of the casino is this multiple personality, showing itself by its two different faces. Firstly, its arrogant, urban face which is placed above, visible from almost every direction and collaborating with the power plant’s attitude by daring the river water and challenging the city centre; secondly, its more subtle fringe face which is placed below, under the Vltava River, connected to Stvanice’s dam, resisting the water and revealing the secret of the casino for those who have entered the fringe.
Img. 63: Scheme casino concept
DESIGN
110
ROYAL FLUSH
SCULPTURE The design expressed in its sculptural character gives an impression about how the casino obtained its shape, how it is formed by its environment so to say. The lower part of the building, its fringe face, is given the height of the Stvanice Dam, so the river water finds its way over the roof and is able to fall down behind the building, resulting in a new line of falling water. Because of this lower casino part exceeding the field that defines the casino’s outer boundaries, this new line connects to the corner of the island’s head and leads to the point where the dam is connected to the river bank on the north side of the island. The experience of this falling water - judged as interesting and valuable in an architectural way - is increased by the creation of more falling water, coming down in the shape of a circle, cut out of the building’s roof at the south part of the casino. The new waterline created by the lower casino part is interrupted by the tower, a high and sharp form, part of the building’s urban face. This tower is both shaped by the direction of Stvanice’s dam and the sightlines from the Prague Castle and Petrin Tower. It stands at the very northern edge of the field that defines the casino’s outer boundaries, cleaving the river water and separating the old and new lines of falling water while leaning forward in the resisting of the Vltava River’s force. The flat roof of the lower casino part rises while getting closer to the tower, creating a transition between the low, flat roof and the tower. The dome, part of the casino’s urban face, positioned at the centre of the casino, grows out of the flat roof at the southern edge of the field that defines the casino’s outer boundaries. Its base is a circle, an arrogant shape completely ignoring the stream of Vltava’s river water. From the cities point of view, the shapes of the casino’s urban face seem to stand in the river like loos objects, completely surrounded by water, next to Stvanice’s power plant. However, from the fringe’s perspective, the lower part of the casino - its fringe face - creates a connection between the island with its power plant, the circular shaped falling water as negative circle, the arrogant, water ignoring dome as positive circle and finally the sharp, water cleaving and resisting tower, ending the curtain of falling water. When the water rises higher than four and a half meters, the lower part of the casino will be completely flooded and shapes growing out of its roof will be interpreted as loose objects from every perspective outside the building.
Img. 64: Facade facing the city
Img. 65: Facade facing the fringe
111
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 66: Section casino
DESIGN
112
ROYAL FLUSH casino restaurant hotel shop staff kitchen security toilets Img. 63: Casino functions
Img. 67: Casino level 0 Scale: 1-1000
SCENOGRAPHY To enter the domain of Stvanice’s Waterfall Casino, one must first find a way to access the island and thereby the fringe space. From the cities point of view, one must firstly travel beyond the casino, pass the island’s head so to say and after accessing the fringe island – use a road which leads again in the direction of this head part, facing the city. This typical way of arriving at the casino completely contradicts the natural system of a casino’s functionality that normally maintains a great respect to a decent accessibility and from that point of view - the ordinary one – the necessary effort to visit this building is a great disadvantage. However, from the fringes point of view, this method of travelling towards the Waterfall Casino is a way to increase its exclusiveness, mystery and therefore its charm. The tempting, daring and playful attitude of the fringe casino is already reflected in the journey leading to it, a reinforcement of its retreating functionality and location.
113
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 68: exterior impression facing upstream
DESIGN
114
ROYAL FLUSH
In order to access the casino’s world, one must take the stairs leading towards the river’s lower part up to one meter above the water level and pass behind the line of falling water at the edge of Stvanice Island and the Waterfall Casino. Once inside, the first zone of the casino can be entered by taking the stairs down one meter which means that the visitor finds oneself at the actual water level of the lower river part. This first casino floor contains the entrance desk and a great amount of the casinos slot machines with a low threshold, easily accessible for new visitors. This part of the building is positioned around the circular courtyard of falling water, surrounding a surrealistic appearing island, vaguely visible through the water curtain. The second casino floor is separated from the first by a great circular stair, bringing visitors down till they find themselves 1 meter below the normal water level of the rivers lower part. This floor grants access to gaming tables such as crabs or blackjack, containing a slightly higher threshold than the slots from the first casino floor. This area also provides a bar, positioned right before the long and straight curtain of falling water.
Img. 69: Entrance/first casino floor level 0 Scale: 1-500
115
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
DESIGN
116
Img. 70: Casino dome level 0 Scale: 1-500
ROYAL FLUSH
From the second casino floor, again circular stairs bring the visitor half a meter down, accessing the great dome, which is the central and main casino space. The bottom floor is filled with all types of gaming tables such as crabs, blackjack, roulette and poker, partly surrounded by slot machines. The centre of this main casino floor can be used as performance stage, depending on the current events. Two circular floors hang inside the dome and climb out of the casinos lower areas, rising above the Vltava River. These two floors, can be accessed from the bottom floor of the dome by two orbiting staircases. The first of these two floors contains gaming tables and a bar, the second one contains only tables. These two hanging floors could for instance be used as facilitation for specific casino tournaments. The higher visitors find themselves in the dome the more exclusive the casino games become; also the focus shifts from the experience of being under the river to the experience of rising above the river, viewing the fringe on one side and the city of Prague on the other side. In this space, one can fully experience the river’s higher water which streams completely around the dome, before it falls of the casinos flat roof.
Img. 71: Casino dome level 1 Scale: 1-500
117
Img. 72: Casino dome level 2 Scale: 1-500
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 73: exterior impression facing power plant
DESIGN
118
ROYAL FLUSH
One could choose to walk around the main casino dome by traveling along the straight faรงade of the building. This space, leading around the domes bottom floor, is a smooth transition between the second casino floor and the restaurant area. From both the dome and the restaurant area, one can pass through the next casino floor which contains an island of slot machines and leads to the buildings tower, already announced by the rising ceiling of the lower casino areas.
Img. 74: Restaurant/casino floor level 0 Scale: 1-500
119
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 75: Casino tower level 0 Scale: 1-500
Img. 76: Casino tower level 1 Scale: 1-500
DESIGN
120
Img. 77: Casino tower level 2 Scale: 1-500
ROYAL FLUSH
LEVEL 6
LEVEL 5
LEVEL 4
LEVEL 3
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 1
LEVEL O
The tower is divided into two main parts. First, a casino area which is the atrium, positioned towards the city and the high part of the river. Second, a hotel area consisting of a lobby below and hotel rooms on the higher levels of the tower. After taking the stairs – connecting the lower areas of the casino with the tower - which brings the visitors back up to the water level of river’s lower part, one could access the tower’s atrium, containing another island of slot machines or enter the lobby of the casino’s hotel with its own bar. From the atrium, one could enter the casino’s shop or take the turning staircase to enter another casino floor with slot machines and a bar, placed on top of the casino’s shop. At the atrium’s 3rd floor, one finds the last and most exclusive ‘high rollers’ casino floor which contains all types of casino games, accept for the slot machines. This floor is meant for the visitors who spend the greatest amounts of money and desire their privacy. Also this floor has its own, private bar and provides a spectacular view over the casino’s other building parts, the Vltava River, the fringe island and the city centre of Prague. The hotel rooms on the other side of the tower increase both in dimensions and luxury with every higher floor. On the contrary, its counterpart, the casino atrium decreases in dimensions with every higher floor resulting in the fact that the experience of luxury and exclusiveness becomes more intense for both the hotel and the casino areas while one climbs up into the tower of the Waterfall Casino. This continues till the final, penthouse floor of the tower is reached and the entire surface of the space is taken by the hotel. This room, the so called ‘Jackpot room’ can only be used by the winner of Stvanice’s Waterfall Casino Jackpot and provides every thinkable aspect of service and luxury. The Jackpot room contains the casino’s best view towards the river, fringe and city centre and is looking down at the rest of the casino building to provide its guests the ultimate victory experience. One cannot go higher.
Img. 78: Casino tower Scale: 1-1000
121
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 79: Casino tower level 3 Scale: 1-500
Img. 80: Casino tower level 4 Scale: 1-500
DESIGN
122
Img. 81: Casino tower level 5 Scale: 1-500
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 82: Casino tower level 6 Scale: 1-500
123
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH front office back office
Img. 83: front- back offices
Img. 84: section 1 casino courtyard scale: 1-500
3 2 1
DESIGN
124
ROYAL FLUSH
The complete number of hotel rooms being part of the Waterfall Casino gets to only six which is an extremely small amount and contradicts the natural system of a casino’s functionality. Normally, a casino would desire as many sleepovers as possible, but the Waterfall Casino aims to create extraordinary experiences by truly exceptional spaces. For the hotel part, this cannot be realized if only its unique and hardly reachable location were used; also the nearly unreal dimensions and extremely small number of rooms are contributing to the utopian character of the spaces which form the casino’s hotel. Besides its division between a lower and higher part, corresponding with the lower and higher part of the river water, the casino’s concept of the two faces is also expressed in the sum of spaces forming the ‘front-office’ and all spaces forming the ‘back-office’ of the building. The Stvanice Dam is a visible, tangible and moreover active part of the interior design since the line of falling water is moved in order to let the river flow over the casino’s flat roof and fall down afterwards. Since the dam is no longer a hidden element, it is activated in its new interior functionality, namely the separation of the casino’s front- and back office, allowing visitors and staff to travel through at specific points. The Stvancie Dam, the former guard of the fringe space and separating element between fringe and its environment again becomes a barrier between two types of spaces, containing completely different characteristics. The front-office contains all great and open spaces, meant to surprise and impress the casino’s visitors. The different casino floors form the traffic space and connect all other front-office functions. The height differences between the different casino floors create different zones and atmospheres which allow visitors to choose their favourite gaming area and support them in both the orientation and movement through the building. The main casino dome is the space with the lowest platform height, and can be easily seen from almost every spot within the front-office of the building. All the bars are raised half a meter compared to their surrounding floor in order to create a clear sight on the games. Guests who are taking a brake are capable of orientating themselves and will not feel excluded from the game’s atmosphere; they are still able to enjoy the casino’s entertainment. The back-office consists of smaller spaces, mainly meant for the casino’s staff like offices, a canteen, staff toilets, a security room, a kitchen and storage spaces. The only spaces behind the dam which are meant for guests to use are the toilets, the casino shop and two highly exclusive poker rooms, positioned as isolated as possible. The connection and transport between the back-office spaces lays in the corridor which is placed behind the building and reaches completely from one end to the other. Also, this corridor can be used to move fast from one part of the-front office to another without disturbing casino guests or being disturbed by them. Further, the corridor leads to the staff entrance of the building, which can be used by both staff and guests in case of a water rise of more than one meter and the passage to the front entrance is flooded. When the water rises further, it will flood against the facades of the lower casino areas, visible from the inside. The back-office entrance is flooded when the water rises higher than five meters and the Waterfall Casino is closed which is calculated to happen once every one hundred years.
125
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 85: section 2 casino dome scale: 1-500
3 2 1
DESIGN
126
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 86: section 3 casino tower scale: 1-500 2 3 1
127
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 87: Casino structural lines
DESIGN
128
ROYAL FLUSH
STRUCTURE The building concept is also expressed in the system of its structure. The two faces are represented by a heavy and light part of the building. The heavy part contains the flat roof of the casino’s lower areas and climbs partly out of the water on the building’s upstream side. This is a result of the casino’s resisting attitude towards the Vltava River. The Stvanice Dam and power plant have had their conflicts with the forces of the river water, and one of the casino’s given tasks is to participate in this tension between building and water. The concrete head of Stvanice Island is cleaving the river water and therefore manages to survive. Although the great casino dome has its arrogant and water ignoring, circular shape, its structure makes it resist the water as well. The high concrete shell, supported by great arches, protects both the inner space and lighter materials forming one of the buildings higher parts. The height of this shell lowers at the dome’s down stream river side where the water falls from the casino’s flat roof. The same system is used at the tower’s structure. A heavy and high concrete wall cuts into the water and protects the tower against the Vltava’s water forces at the upstream side and lowers at the downstream side, where the pressure is barely vanished. The strong concrete walls carry the lighter, higher parts of the casino tower, consisting of glass facades, supported by columns on the inside. The flat roof of the casino’s lower areas contains a position of the Stvanice Dam’s given height, resulting in a floor height of four 4.4 meters. The different atmospheres inside the casino’s lower parts are therefore not created by the rising and falling of the heavy ceiling but by changing the heights of the casino floors. The dome and tower are an exception to this structural rule, since the height of both the floors and ceilings in these spaces are changed. The two circular shapes penetrating the casino’s flat roof play a great role in the building’s structure. Besides their sculptural character, these two circular shapes arrange the position of the building’s supporting columns and back office walls, carrying the casino’s roof, which at its turn has to be capable of resisting extreme flooding situations when more water will get on the roof of the lower casino areas. The first circle - the courtyard - arranges the columns at the entrance part of the building and the walls of the back office area positioned near the entrance. The second circle – the casino dome – arranges the positions of the columns supporting the façade behind the straight water line. Further, all interior columns are placed on the axis of the dome, steering all long sightlines in the direction of its core. Finally, besides the columns and roof resisting the water pressure in extreme situations, also the glass facades of the casino’s lower area are capable of withholding with extreme water rise. This is why they contain more massive dimensions than the glass on top of the dome’s shell and the tower’s walls. The stronger glass of the lower facades is therefore element of the heavy part of the casino building, conform to its concept.
129
DESIGN
ROYAL FLUSH
Img. 88: section/interior courtyard
Img. 89: section/interior dome
DESIGN
130
ROYAL FLUSH
CONCLUSION DESIGN The Stvanice Waterfall Casino is not a regular casino. It uses a casino’s systematic cleverness to maintain its functionality like a front- and back office and a zoned casino floor system, also acting as traffic space. However, some typical casino characteristics were not used in the design. The normally quite desired accessibility and great amount of hotel rooms are no part of the Waterfall Casino. The building lost these elements in order to increase its exclusive and almost unreal character. Also the total blocking of daylight is not applied by this casino, since the unique qualities of its position and surroundings are to be experienced and contribute to the buildings exceptional atmosphere. Different than the Strip’s casinos, the Waterfall Casino stands on its own and does not need to be an extreme architectural embodiment of a decorated shed. The falling waterline could be seen as a decorated shed, but it only shows itself from the downstream perspective of the Vltava River and is truly tangible, only when one actually entered the casino’s domain. The casino dome might be called a duck because of its arrogant shape, but it is only a small part of the complete building, so it would not be the representation of a total building as an ornament. The casino tower also might be called a duck, but it is contradicting its sculpture as a result of and a respond to the surrounding elements’s influence. Therefore, the Waterfall Casino is different from the typical Las Vegas casino, which is an extreme decorated shed in both the competition and cooperation with its neighbour casinos. However, the Waterfall Casino is not alone; it uses the Stvanice Power Plant as visible and the Stvanice Dam as invisible, fringe allies. Together with the Stvanice Power Plant, the casino faces Prague’s city centre and the Vltava River’s forces. It celebrates the Stvanice Dam’s former edge and transition function of the fringe by becoming the very edge. The casino creates the possibility of transition between its two different parts, referring to the fringe and the outside world. Also the thrill of the exiting rise and fall of the Vltava River’s water is celebrated. In extreme situations, the rise of the river water can be experienced from the inside of the casino and visitors can see the level of the river water rising behind its glass facades. When the water rises higher than five meters, which is calculated to happen extremely rarely, the casino is closed but withholds the forces of the water. This fits the island’s character of change and limited till no access in the most extreme situations when the Vltava River threatens Prague’s river banks and city centre.
Img. 90: interior impression dome
131
DESIGN
CONCLUSION
Royal Flush
Stvanices Waterfall Casino
ROYAL FLUSH
CONCLUSION What is a fringe? This question will probably always stay barely impossible to answer, at least in a satisfying way. When one would answer that a fringe is an exception its environment, questions asking ‘how’ and ‘why’ will be asked leading to probably nothing. In a general way, the question ‘What is a fringe?’ cannot be answered satisfyingly. People will keep searching without finding the definite answer, since a general definition wider than ‘an exception in its environment’ seems not to exist, although we will not be able to stop our curiosity from seeking. However, when the question is asked in a particular case, more information about this mysterious phenomenon seems to reveal itself, if one is capable of discovering its unique qualities, asks the right questions and succeeds in reflecting on the asked questions. In this particular case the question about a definition of the fringe was translated in questions about the typical example of Ostrov Stvanice. The fringe qualities of this island were found and judged for their strength and potential. When the choice for an architectural programme in order to celebrate the fringe of Stvanice Island fell on a casino, this typical phenomenon was treated in a comparable way to the fringe’s treatment. The question ‘What is a casino?’ also prove itself to be barely impossible to answer in a satisfying way, since the definition of a casino as ‘a space or building where one can gamble’ is quite a shallow one. Probably a casino in general is what our imagination chooses to make of it and exactly this imagination is the casino’s very strength. After the discovery that a casino, like a fringe, reveals itself when the right questions concerning particular examples were asked, the crucial information to create a new example was found. This does not mean that one single building is capable of gaining strong fringe characteristics of a specific location. If one wishes to celebrate a fringe by maintaining and reinforcing it, one needs to cooperate with the fringe’s system. A new building cannot celebrate an already existing fringe on its own but needs cited, local associates to work with. Both fringe and new architecture need to accept each other: The combination of the Stvanice Island and the casino prove itself a challenging one, since during the process it became clear that the casino was not only to celebrate the Stvanice Island fringe, but the fringe also had to play its part in celebrating the casino. However, the Waterfall Casino and the island found a way to reinforce each others qualities: Compared to a road crossing a desert and traveling through the Las Vegas Strip, the Vltava River is like a great strip traveling through a landscape. The great Vltava Strip is a highway for boats instead of cars, meandering through an urban scape instead of a desert and not enclosed by a fringe atmosphere but enclosing a fringe itself. Ostrov Stvanice, an island in the Vltava river being almost an inversed Las Vegas Strip, was given a casino. No casino of desert sand, no decorated shed, merely focussed on one single direction; it was given a casino of water, facing both the space to which it belongs and the outside world. A casino - forced to reinvent itself as a result of the extraordinary location in which it was placed - escaped the standard characteristics of a casino’s design and found a way to adapt. CONCLUSION
134
ROYAL FLUSH
The island on the other hand, was forced to accept this casino and succeeded in an interplay between the casino’s architecture and its own appearance. With the Waterfall Casino, both added to and reinforcing its atmosphere, Stvanice Island maintains its unique characteristics but is at the same time capable of highlighting its qualities. The island was not given a new face, because the existing one was proven to valuable to be lost; it received a new instrument in expressing itself and the appearance it already possessed. Stvanice is celebrated again, back in its daring and surprising role, supported by architecture, seeking to reveal what is hidden and amaze the ordinary by creating the extraordinary.
Img. 91: Waterfall Casino dome, night impression
135
CONCLUSION
ROYAL FLUSH
138
ROYAL FLUSH
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This document, together with the studio’s first book, is looking back at a graduation year full of exploration and development. It has been a year of great experiences, ups and downs and the following of a rough path leading towards the finalisation of the project. Of course, the design is far from perfect and if the process was not ended here, it would have been continuing with the teaching of many lessons concerning the technical aspects of architecture which I would love to learn. Unfortunately I had to dismiss these lessons and draw a concluding line because the lack of time that always seems to be a phenomenon of threat in a designer’s world. And although both studies to fringes and casinos were concluded in this document, there is always a reason for more research since we keep looking for answers and answers raise new questions. I would like to thank every member of the design studio for their shared insights and useful opinions which became of great value to both the group process and the individual design process. The diverse points of view led quite often to great discussions but provided a large amount of information and design input. Further, I would like to thank both Geesje Burema and Jeroen Peperkamp for their time, invested to explain the ins and outs of the practical casino life. I also would like to thank my family and friends for their interest, inspirational comments and trust, truly encouraging me. Finally, my special thanks goes to Eline, standing closest to me, constantly watching my back and supporting me during the entire process. It would have been an impossible task without her great patience, sharp eye and architectural talent. Although the process had to be stopped for this moment, it will always continue and the architecture that is created during this journey are just milestones along the way, marking constant development in an attitude of interest and the will to learn. To put it in the words of Robert Venturi as mentioned in his ‘Learning from Las Vegas’: ‘Architecture is fronzen process…..’ We will never stop.
139
ROYAL FLUSH
142
ROYAL FLUSH
BIBLIOGRAPHY Books 1. 2. 3.
Rossi, A. (1981). A Scientific Autobiography. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: The MIT Press Koolhaas, R. (1994). Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. New York: The Monacelli Press Sennett, R. (2008). The Craftsman. New Haven & London: Yale University Press
4.
Studio ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’. (2013). Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception. Eindhoven: University of Technology
5.
Foucault, M. (1967) Des Espace Autres, France: Architecture Mouvement Continuité, published in 1984, translated by by Jay Miskowiec Rowe, C. & Koetter. F. (1990 Collage City Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: The MIT Press Ritter, R. & Knaller-Vlay, B. (1998) Other Spaces: The Affair of the Heterotopia, Graz, Austria: Haus der Architektur Deheane, M. & De Cauter, L. (2008) Heterotopia and the city: Public space in a postcivil society, New York: Routledge
6. 7. 8.
9.
Henderson, J. (1999). Casino design: Resorts, Hotels, and Themed Entertainment Spaces. Massachusetts, England: Rockport Publishers
10.
Venturi, R. (1999). LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Rockport Publishers,
Websites 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
http://foucault.info/ http://www.heterotopiastudies.com/ http://maps.google.com http://here.com http://a2zlasvegas.com http://vegasnowandthen.blogspot.nl http://www.library.unlv.edu http://vegasinpictures.com
143
Royal Flush Stvanice Waterfall Casino ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’ is an architectural design studio, created as graduation studio within the boundaries of university master ‘Architecture, Building and Planning’ at the Technical University of Eindhoven; a studio that started in the winter of 2013. A group of thirteen students guided by two tutors began an investigation to the combination of two polarities namely the ‘retreat in nature’ and the ‘architecture of the city’. This investigation of retreat into nature in the very heart of the city would be done by researching the forgotten places and the fringe zones of the contemporary metropolis. The studio states that ‘The fringe zones and peripheral sites offer specific qualities and exceptional conditions that have to be explored and celebrated. The fringe offers a certain resistance towards known architectural solutions and demands new ideas and perspectives.’ The ambition of the studio is the creation of architecture, capable of celebrating fringe zones, maintaining them and preventing them from being swallowed by the encroaching urbanization. The specific project chosen for the first year of the studios existence is the location of the Stvanice island in the riverbed of the Vltava River which meanders through the city centre of Prague, facing the rise and fall of the body of water, forming an annually reoccurring event in the city life. In order to do so, first, understanding of the term ‘fringe’ had to grow because a defined answer to the question: ‘What is a fringe?’ is not easily found. Therefore, a list of thirteen so called fringe situations was carefully selected to act as case studies, one for every student to be studied, covering different cultures and eras by examples spread out over the world. A list consisting of remarkable places that resembled to be fringes in the past or seeming to be at this present time. Second, besides these thirteen fringe case studies, the Stvancie Island was also treated as case study, but explored in a more elaborated form to discover, when present, its unique, fringe qualities. And third, the functionality of ‘contemplation’, a functionality judged as suitable for a fringe location, was researched to become a possible enrichment of a function which was to be chosen as foundation of the ‘fringe celebrating’ architecture. All the information gathered during the above mentioned group process regarding the fringe case studies, the location analyses and the contemplation analyses, was bound in a book named ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’, product of the so called ‘M3’ phase of architectural design studio ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’. This document, a subsequent one to the previously mentioned book, describing the so called ‘M4’ phase of the studio, is one of thirteen individual pieces, all continuing the research of previously mentioned M3 phase, using its book ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’ as take-off for the elaboration of an architectural design, a building proving its capability of both exploring and celebrating the fringe of the Stvanice Island. Both the process leading to a final design and a statement about the fringe phenomenon will be presented in this document while referring to architectural theories, case studies and information found during the previous phase of the research process (‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exception’). The design, of which its concept, appearance and creation will be elaborated and explained, could be seen as the translation, the tangible body of this statement, forming the finalizing conclusion of this document.
Copyright © 2014 Jos Poortman Eindhoven University of Technology Architecture, Building and Planning Juliette Bekkering Sjef van Hoof All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form, without writte permission fro the publishers. Released for architectural design studio ‘Celebrating the Fringe: designing the exeption‘ Unsity of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands