In Transit
Design for people in motion
Masters in Landscape Architecture RMIT Final Project Phillip Smith
Declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; and, any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. Phillip Smith
Acknowledgements I would like to thank above all my wife Michelle Ferris for her unwavering support; my friends and colleagues Kelly Candler, Stephen Mushin, Robert Harding, Tom Doig, Nic Low and Laura Jean Mackay for their help and encouragement; all the staff in the RMIT Landscape Architecture department, particularly the Masters Supervisors Charles Anderson, Bridget Keane, Judy Rogers, Craig Douglas and Marieluise Jonas; tutors Cassie Lucas, Tom Harper and Greg Afflick for their advice and assistance; Jeremy McLeod and Stuart Harrison.
contents
section 1 executive summary introduction summmary of project A
7 8 9
section 2 personal precedents perspective theory anamorphosis depth perception le notre razzle dazzle project precedents
18 28 32 34 35 36 37
section 3 urban realities YUL-MTL testing mapping tool kit
41 42 43 50 55
section 4 speed grid distortion effects YUL-MTL site plan designs site one - airport site two - train yard site three - highway section 5 summary conclusion section 6 appendix
57 60 62 64 68 78
6
Executive Summary
Question How can the mechanics of perspective, particularly anamorphosis, be used to design for a person in motion? Abstract The act of moving through the landscape is a constant process of being and becoming, arriving and departing. “Virilio believes speed annihilates space and compresses time. The automobile, as the now most prevalent means of transport, has a significant influence on our space perception. The speed overburdens humans, especially in regard to their visual space perception ability. Even though a car ride is mainly a one-dimensional event, humans can no longer cope with the flood of visual impressions at increased speed. Only distinctive features will still be perceived by them.” (Ingold, 2010) Paul Virilio asks: “Where are we, when we travel? Where is this ‘land of speed’ which never matches the one we are crossing?” (cited in Ingold, 2010) ‘In Transit’ seeks to reconnect the traveller to the experience of landscape within an urban field by creating a structure that is legible at speed. The research explores geometries of perspective, the historic roots of Landscape Architecture, as fundamental to the way we experience the world both in designing and experiencing the landscape. Anamorphosis is a particular application of perspective theory for producing distorted images to be viewed from a particular viewpoint or through a particular lens. Can this process be used to restore order to the distortion of the landscape produced by high-speed travel and recontextualise the traveller? Through the framework of the Montreal design competition YUL-MTL Moving Landscapes, I am exploring these ideas to produce a unique experience of Montreal for the traveller. By designing the landscape through a series of key viewpoints along the transport corridor between the Montreal airport and Montreal CBD I aim to produce a distinctive structure that will be more easily comprehended at speed.
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“Liminality here breaks, as it were, the cake of custom and enfranchises speculation... Liminality is the realm of primitive hypothesis, where there is a certain freedom to juggle with the factors of existence.. As in the works of Rabelais, there is a promiscuous intermingling and juxtaposing of the categories of event, experience, and knowledge, with a pedagogic intention.� Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols 1967
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#01
Introduction
Introduction Following on from my work in Project A on design for the moving subject I have distilled the focus to an understanding of perspective and how to design through this. In project A I used a tool kit I had developed from my analysis of the highway environment, which I was thinking of in terms of the Landscape Picturesque movement. These were tools of patterning, texturing, layering, parallax, and view lines. I am now viewing this environment in terms of perspective composition and am looking at ways that this can inform my designs for the motorist. These techniques could equally be applied for a variety of scales and speeds, however, my research in Project B specifically deals with the highway and speeds of the automobile.
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#03
#02
Project A
Project A Project A began as an interest in movement patterns and the city, narrative and the theory of liminality. Liminality is a term from anthropology that talks of a “threshold� state between two different existential planes. My early sketch studies explored the structure of the city and the experience of movement through it. These analyses and my questions into liminality led to a few things ; the city periphery, the highway adjacency and peripheral vision. I narrowed my site down to the highway edge. The mappings in #02 was looking at major regional towns around Melbourne and the travel times between them. Mappings in the sequence #03 looked at zoning, transport corridors and historic walking distances.
11
Images #04 and #05 looked at a variety of edge conditions, ways that a line or the perception of a line can be drawn or created.
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#05
#04
Project A
#07
#06
Project A
Mappings #06 and #07 were exploring the way we customise our space, beginning with an image or map and being broken down into a vague overlapping of space and memory.
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#09
#08
Project A
Early design ideas, #08, looked at the roadside and the pedagogical possibilities of this liminal condition. At this stage I still maintained a position relating to peak-oil and the transition to a post- peak oil society. #09 are sketches done at the time that I saw as geographic mind maps of the city at different scales.
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#11
#10
Project A
#10 and #11 are early studies into liminality and the perception of transition through spaces. In hindsight, it was this strong sense of perspective that interested me about this space.
#12
The study aimed to determine how a focal point would affect the experience of space. In image #12 it is the absence that becomes the focal point.
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Project A
Highways are “... a sort of nonlocus in which an infinite number of sign-substitutions came into play.�
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Derrida, Writing and Difference 2001
Project A
#14
#13
Image #13, with the warning ‘images in the mirror appear closer than they are’, began a process of thinking about the distortion of perception through the lens of the car.
I undertook several field trips to experience and record contemporary design for the highway. Craigieburn bypass is a design dealing predominantly with pattern. I review this project further on page 35.
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#15
Project A
Sydney’s M5 motorway (#15) offered a more interesting palette of design strategies. Here the designers have used text, image and pattern to connect to local context; landmark points are used as way-finders and walls are used to carefully control viewlines to significant locations.
#16
What caught my eye the most on the highway were the unintended events created by roadworks (#16); a field of orange conduits from an unfinished lighting installation; and the sea of warning markers on a newly upgraded off-ramp.
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Project A
Layering
Patterning
Landmarks
Animation
Viewlines
#17
Horizon
From this field research I created this palette of tools: patterning, texturing, layering, parallax, landmarks, horizon and view lines. Using these tools I applied them to the design of sound and visual barriers covered in the next section.
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“...the line that illuminates the dark writing of the world (matter, inferior nature, multiplicity), the contracting one, will be a broken one.�
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Paul Carter, Dark Writing
Project A
#18
#19
#20
#21
#22
The quote on the opposite page from Paul Carter led me to the idea that the walls would need to have a degree of transparency in order to affect a dialogue between the two states of highway and surrounding context.
the result (see digital appendix). #21 shows a wall parametrically modelled to face a selected object or view line. This was the most interesting of my initial test and I took this further into tests of rotating panels.
I looked at different patterns and structures that would affect this dialogue and used animation to test
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#24
#23
Project A
These images, #23, show the progesssion of the designs for parametrically rotated panels. The panels rotate to either obscure or reveal an object or view line. #24 uses a parametric attractor line to open or close appertures in the wall. The line may represent a horizon line or particular section of the surrounding landscape.
#26
#25
#25 and #26 show the process of modelling using Grasshopper software plugin in Rhinoceros 3D.
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#29
Moire tests on site
#28
Moire test designs
#27
Project A
Single layered patterns
#30 shows a particular type of moire called shape moire. The pattern of gaps between lines interacts with the regularity of the compressed image to recreate a whole image. I wondered if it would be possible to use this effect on repetitive urban structures like estate housing.
#30
Moire, or interference patterns is an effect created by two patterns that are slightly out of sync or rotated. The two shapes effect each other in such a way that a third pattern is created. I came across these pattern through extensive tests of the effects of various patterns and movement.
23
The final designs explored moire patterns as a tool for designing for the moving subject. Moire patterns had several effects that related to my toolbox of techniques. The designs contained patterns that animated through movement and played with the context through parallax and interference. They could be designed to obscure or reveal particular viewpoints or horizon lines. The visual permeability allowed for the relationship to context that was one of my main objectives of my design brief.
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#30
#29
#28
Project A
“Rhythm is the contraction of movement into physical forms; it makes sense of both movement and stasis.�
Paul Carter, Dark Writing
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#01
personal precedents
Nomadology My interest in narratives of the city stemmed from an independent project funded by the Australia council (#01). Myself and two other artists and writers published a book of writing from a blog set up for Australians travelling overseas. The blog published writing and photographs of each participant as well as visually mapping their movements in relation to each other over the course of a few years. The visual mappings allow each participant to relate to each other over time. By aiding participants awareness of their location in the world and in relation to each other stories could be shared directly or indirectly, paths could diverge and stories enfold.
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#02
personal precedents
RMIT Design Studio This work for an early RMIT design studio dealt with a section of train line in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The corridor narrowed before a tunnel leading up to Holmeglen station. Adjacent to the station is the largest technical college in Australia. The design was a three-phase installation dealing with different speeds and conditions in the train corridor. One design involved a fairly low-tech grid of LED lights between the two train lines that could be programmed as a three-dimensional digital animation by the TAFE students. The second was a simple light-box stopmotion animation device along the tunnel wall. A third dealt with writing along the adjacent bike path where words spilt into each other to form a reconfigurable narrative.
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personal precedents
#03
A Map of a Dream of the Future I collaborated on this installation for the Regional Arts Festival 2010 in Launceston. The plants mapped out data from a survey of school students about their imaginings of the future. My contribution was the flooded reflective floor and a single line of pavers in a cross. The floor emphasised the three dimensionality of the space and the pavers marked the grid and allowed for users to walk out into the space and experience it from inside. I wanted people to experience the datascape rather than viewing it.
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personal precedents
#04
PopUp A later influential project was this RMIT elective with Fiona Harrison in which Italo Calvino’s ‘Invisible Cities’ was used as provocation for story books of Melbourne. I employed a double layered effect with etched acetate to express the influence of the past on contemporary imaginings of the city.
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Perspective
“Space is not there for the eye only: it is not a picture; one wants to live in it... We reject space as a painted coffin for our living bodies.� El Lissitzky
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Perspective
Graphical perspective Graphical perspective is the interpretation of a three-dimensional image, as seen by the eye, to a two-dimensional picture plane. In perspective drawing, parallel lines converge to a vanishing point along an axis. There are three common types of perspective representation (diagram 1). One-point perspective occurs when the image contains lines converging to a vanishing point on the horizon directly ahead of the viewer. This may occur in the site where the sides of the highway are built up and the road is straight, disappearing to a vanishing point directly ahead.
Images 18-20
Diagrams 3
Two-point occurs when lines converge to two different vanishing points on the horizon either side of the centre of view. This may occur on the site where side views open up and a orthagonal structure still exists ahead.
#06
#05
Three-point perspective occurs in more open areas or on fly overs, the structures may create perspective with three vanishing points or more.
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#08
#07
Anamorphosis
#09
Anamorphic projection Anamorphosis applies the theory of perspective drawing to create the reverse effect wherein a two-dimensional image is projected onto another plane. The effect creating a distorted geometry.
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#10
Anamorphosis
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Depth perception
Depth Perception These diagrams show theories of depth perception. Colour, contrast and focus are effected over distance due to refraction in through the atmosphere.
Colour
Blur
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#11
Contrast
Le Notre’s plan for the Grand Canal at Sceaux
#12
Niceron’s diagram of anamorphosis 1638
#11
Le Notre
Andre Le Notre Andre Le Notre used these techniques in his french formalist gardens; Le Nôtre employed an optical illusion called anamorphosis abscondita (which might be roughly translated as ‘hidden distortion’) in his garden design in order to establish decelerated perspective. The most apparent change in this manner is of the reflecting pools. They are narrower at the closest point to the viewer (standing at the rear of the château) than at their farthest point; this makes them appear closer to the viewer. From a certain designed viewing point, the distortion designed into the landscape elements produces a particular forced perspective and the eye perceives the elements to be closer than they actually are. (Wikipedia, Vaux Le Vicomte) For the background, however, the reverse reverse is true and the property appear endless. The concave of the land plays with the forced perspective and the scale of architectural objects to make the garden seem to continue over the horizon (#12). Anamorphosis abscondita may be better termed forced perspective. Although there is a rather flat, painterly composition to his work Le Notre’s aim here is not to create a two-dimensional image but to affect the viewers sense of depth and space using a visual illusion designed to show mastery over the mechanics of the world (for the benefit fo the king). His intricate use of geometry was centred around the kings position in the castle, placing him at the centre of the universe.
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#13
Razzle Dazzle
Razzle Dazzle Razzle Dazzle was the name of a technique of camouflage used in WW1. The intention was to confuse rangefinders in naval fleets. The technique applied principles of anamorphosis to create false geometries applied to the hulls of ships. The effect was not to hide them but to confuse attempts to determine speed and direction at a distance.
#15
#14
One modern application of this technique is to disguise highway speed-traps.
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project precedents
#16 images this page http://www.tzg.com.au/projects/craigieburn-bypass
Craigieburn Bypass - TZG,TCL, Robert Owen This design is primarily one of pattern. Etched perspex walls and large concrete columns reference the lace curtains and vertical blinds of the suburban context behind the walls. The wavering corten steel is described as a snake coming in from the plains and shedding its skin. There is a moment when the corten winds up and over the highway, framing for a second the view of the CBD. Each of the blue concrete columns is slightly rotated creating an animation effect as you pass at speed. At night an LED light wall responds to the speed and density of passing traffic, creating a colourful light show.
Each of the blue concrete columns is slightly rotated creating an animated effect as you pass at speed, one that is only really legible at high speed or over a long distance. At night an LED light wall responds to the speed and density of passing traffic, creating a colourful light show that plays with the sense of motion, speed and scale of the highway.
In terms of my research, this design offers a few things. The corten reference to a snake skin may persist as a reference to the location once development has rendered the plains illegible.
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#17
project precedents
Eastlink - Woods Marsh architects Melbourne’s Eastlink bypass by architects Wood Marsh is a recent example of a large scale highway design. It’s distinctive sculptural gestures locate the project through a kind of branding. The use of simple, bold colours create forms easily recognisable at speed and distance. Woven through these bold objects are a palette of materials, colours and patterns that tie the project to the vernacular. It builds in obvious ways on the Craigieburn Bypass project but achieves a more unified aesthetic. In part this is due to the existing conditions; Craigieburn lies in open plains, damaged by farming and development, Eastlink is enclosed within hilly terrain with remnant bushland. There is a greater use of transparent materials allowing the spaces to relate to each other and the tracking of motion of other vehicles and solar patterns. The inclusion of more abstract art also opens up the reading of the space in comparison to the slightly contrived louvres of Craigieburn.
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#18
project precedents
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#19
project precedents
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Urban Realities
#02
The use of water as a construction material allowed for a responsiveness to the site conditions and a permeability that encouraged engagement with the design. Early tests revealed how the water in bags To allow the temporary structure resilience against the strong prevailing winds meant that the form also needed a degree of permeability, resulting in a structure that was very much part of the urban fabric. The materials, especially the zip-lock bags, related nicely to the surrounding highrise when viewed from within, taking on a similar language and scale. The intervention then was an object in itself but also sat in relation to its surroundings, playing and engaging with them and inviting the public to do likewise.
#01
Urban Realities My entry for the Urban Realities 72hr Challenge in Melbourne Docklands offered a chance to reflect on some of the explorations from Project A. The competition was part of the State of Design Festival which this year had the theme ‘Design That Moves’.
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YUL-MTL
#03
Montreal Design Competition YULMTL is an international urban design ideas competition for the gateway corridor linking Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) to its downtown area (MTL) along Autoroute 20. The 17 km gateway corridor, which is mostly made up of transport infrastructures and brownfields, is witnessing a large number of development infrastructural projects, thus offering considerable urban innovation potential. The Competition seeks a coherent vision aimed at creating an expressive gateway based on Montreal’s identity as a UNESCO City of Design. The proposals should revolve along three work streams: * An evolving and emblematic landscape project for the metropolitan area * A scenographic composition of the corridor experiences * A collaborative approach to sustainable urban development
The competition title was YUL-MTL Moving Landscapes which fitted well with my earlier research. I brought my previous brief into the competition which was to design an interface for the highway that increased the travellers connection to and understanding of the surrounding context.
#04
What I have developed is a framework for the site using the existing structure of the city and playing with a sense of depth, speed and space for the motorist, using historic tools of landscape architecture.
Light These collages explore my initial instincts for the Montreal competition which were to use the existing language of light to highlight site area. In this way the site could be read through the planimetric upon approach. Its starts to give locality to the experience of the design on the ground plane and contrast to its plays of depth and perspective.
#05
It brought to mind the exclamation of Le Corbusier after his first air flight “L’avion accuse...!”
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#06
Testing
Anamorphic projection of a square
Side
View point Anamorphic projection This testing of the anamorphosis technique in my hallway allowed me to understand the process of making. From the front door (left image) a flat square appears to be on the wall. Viewed from the side (right images) the square appears as an elongated rhomboid. I used a laser pointer projected through a cardboard template to locate the points. The process also enabled me to understand more clearly the separation between perspective amd the anamorphic. The square is a twodimensional image in anamorphic projection ie. projected onto a three-dimensional surface.
Projected image
Diagram #07 explains the process more clearly.
Plan
View Point
#07
Picture plane
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Jin Uk Lee
Shin Young
#08
Testing
Anamorphic geometry Image #09 is a testing of projected geometry is based on the AA Exhibition Camouflage: A Catalogue of Effects (#08). A patterning of projected geometries is used to disguise the actual geometry of a room, affecting the way we read the space.
#09
This Architecture Association design studio explored techniques of Camouflage for architectural form. Jin Uk Lee explored anamorphosis in an urban setting to disguise a building in the existing structure. The exhibition installation by Shin Young proved more interesting for me as the twodimensional form extends of the surface in a landscape terrain.
#10
Both these projects stemmed from analysis of ‘Razzle Dazzle’ camouflage used on warships in WWI and II. The designs overlay false geometries onto a surface to disguise the speed and direction of movement of the object. Image #10 explores the possibility of transposing the previous patterns on to site. This is merely a top down projection in order to test scale and start to inform what it might be to create this effect across a large landscape. What are the stripes composed of? Are they literal or suggestive? What might inform the construction of the geometries?
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#11
Playing with the idea of rotated and distorted planes I designed this tunnel entry for the point the highway meets the city (#11). I was looking to unify the design by working across all scales.
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#12
Testing
Anamorphic architecture In this model I’m exploring the work of William Kentridge in architectural form. The viewer is presented with a basic geometric form that stands out in the disordered landscape. On approach the building volume breaks apart revealing a new geometry and framing views of the landscape beyond. The model is a rudimentary exploration of process of designing with and for motion. The model was created in Rhino with a camera track and viewpoint set up. I discovered that I was unable to project to a surface in perspective as I had hoped to do and I was forced to construct the model through viewpoints and lines that defined my volumes. Within these volumes there are a multitude of possibilities. The intention was to enhance the effect through the projection of an image or texture to the building cladding.
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Testing
Urban structure through viewlines This is a tesing of the Montreal competition site. Having extruded buildings along a section of the freeway, a one kilometre camera track was set with animation recording at 900 frames. This allowed the creation of animations in Final Cut Pro at 15 and 25 frames per second that reproduced speeds of 60 and 100 kph respectively. (see digital appendix) Three different structure were explored: a regular geometry at 90 degrees to the highway in alternating 10m bands of black and white (image #13) a regular geometry at 45 degrees to the highway (image #14)
#13
a fan formation of alternating bands of black and white at 2 degree intervals (image #15)
90 degree bands
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#14
Testing
45 degree bands
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Testing
The fan formation is derived from the sight lines of the automobile passenger. In making sense of the landscape a single point is focused upon over a span relative to the distance of the object from the viewer. When that object has lost it’s interest or moves out of the scope of view, the gaze leaps to the next distant point. The landscape between viewer and object sits in relation to these site lines.
#15
Each of these images is taken from the same aerial view point. It is apparent that the sense of depth is effected by the different patterns.
Fan formation
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#16
Site mapping
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Site mapping
The construction of the space then is based on the relation between the road and landmarks across the site. The space between is constructed in relation to the landmark point in terms of middle and foreground in parallax.
#17
#18 is an analysis of the city in terms of view lines and road axes.
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#18
Site mapping
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Site mapping
Image #19 shows an extrusion of the existing site site conditions and proposed landmark points. Section 4 addresses the site further through the design responses.
Proposed landmarks
Existing landmarks
Axis lines
Water
Buildings
Site layers
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#19
Ground plane
Tool Kit
Anamorphosis
Diverging lines
Converging lines
Decreasing height
Convex/concave
Increasing height
Materials
Trees and shrubs
Colour
Contrast
Street lights
Barriers
Sound walls
Architectural volumes
Cut and Fill
Foreshortening
#20
Image #20 describes the palette of design techniques and materials that can be applied to achieve the desired aims of the project.
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‘Virilio believes that speed annihilates space and compresses time.’
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(Ingold, 2010)
Speed
#01d
#01c
#01b
#01a
Speed The effect of speed is to distort close objects and affect our ability to distinguish objects or patterns. Patterns must be large and simple to be read from the highway. Objects need to sit at a far enough distance or an oblique angle from the road to be understood. Distant objects hold the gaze, the middle ground is viewed in relation to this view line and the foreground is generally blurred or viewed as a mass.
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Speed
80-100km/s 60-80km/s 40-60km/s Trainline
#02
Water
Site Speeds
Mapping #02 shows the various speeds across the site. Each speed requires a different scale of intervention.
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#03
model
Design Framework The design could be seen as a strategy for the highway adjacency. Using fields of marker poles that play with the lines of view, the experience of depth of a person travelling along the road is affected, engaging them with the greater structure of the city. The model in sequence #02 represents the way I was thinking about the city as a network of operations that may be relatively simple in themselves but create other levels of complexity and beauty through their interaction. The form entices you to move around it and explore this interaction. (see digital appendix) The poles diverge or converge to flatten or deepen the image, to focus the view on a particular line or object or to open up a broader view. Distant objects appear nearer or further away.
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grid distrortion
#04
Grid distortion effects Image #04 is a flat square grid of even spacing. This is the control grid.
Images #05 demonstrates the effect of a descending square grid versus an ascending square grid. The descending grid creates a forced perspective towards Mont Royal effectively lengthening the perceived distance. The ascending grid forces the perspective in the opposite direction flattening the image and bringing Mont Royal the landmark buildings closer.
Ascending square grid
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#05
Descending square grid
grid distrortion
Images #06 demonstrates the effect of divergence and convergence in the pole field. The converging grid accentuates the effect of the descending scale and increases the perception of depth in the image. The diverging grid accentuates the ascending scale and further increases the perception of flatness and closeness.
Diverging and ascending grid
#05
Converging and descending grid
Scaling effects #07 shows the effect of building scale on the sense of distance of the existing landmarks. If the proposed are scale smaller to larger from right to left then the Mont Royal buildings appear further away. When scaled left to right the landmarks appear closer.
Descending left to right
#07
Ascending left to right
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YUL-MTL site plan
Legend Existing landmarks Proposed landmarks Axis lines Competition boundary Disused land Highway 50m topo lines
Site 1
Site 2 Site 3
YUL-MTL site plan | 1:20000 @A1
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#08
#09
Site one
YUL-MTL site To the Northwest of the city is Mont Royal from which the city gets it’s name, a 233 m hill in a fairly flat topography. This is the main landmark for the city. There are three key buildings on Mont Royal that are visible from parts of this site. These axis lines are main roadlines of the north side of the city and at the convergence is the key historic centre of St. Laurent.
Site One - airport Site one lies between the airport and the interchange. Traffic both in and out of the airport pass this site and it is visible from the airport flight lounge (#09). Estimated vehicle speed is 40km/h. Two pole fields interlace, one along the axis of the runway leads the eye towards the approaching planes and makes them appear further away but much larger that they are.
I have proposed landmark buildings or towers at these key locations to mark these axes and relate in parallax to the buildings on Mont Royal. The scale smaller to larger left to right to further effect the sense of Mont Royal being closer. The exit from the the airport affords a brief view of Mont Royal and these buildings before you go through an interchange and along a strech of highway that is bordered by soundwalls and industrial buildings.
A
#10
A
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#12
#11
Site one
The second more dominant grid sits on the axis towards Mont Royal and the CBD and diverges to flatten the view. The poles grow exponentially larger and the ground scoops up to both obscure the industrial zone behind and further flatten and accentuate the view towards the city. Bands of bulbs highlight the pole fields and make the whole thing visible from the air.
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Site one
Image #13 shows section AA through site 1. The fill creating the concave ground plane screens the industrial buildings at the north-east end of the site.
A
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A
#13
Site one
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#14
A
A
Site two
Site two plan | 1:5000 @A2
Site two Another brief view is possible through this axis at the old train yards, before the highway goes below ground and emerges through this second exchange and along the next stretch to the city. This is the site of the second intervention.
Existing trees and dirt piles are removed and the ground cut in the fore-ground and built up on top of the natural incline as shown in his section to increase the effect of flatness. The landmarks buildings appear closer and the relationship to this area that was before completely disconnected to the highway is increased.
Image #14 shows site two in relation to the highway. Sites requiring cut and fill are marked as can be seen in the sections below. Axes toward the historic centre of St. Laurent.
Again, the pole are exponentially larger as they get further from the highway and are reinforced by ground plantings and an avenue of trees along the adjacent road line as seen in sectionAA #16.
The bands sit wider apart and the angle of divergence is greater to account for the faster speeds of the highway.
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#15
Site two
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Site two
A
Section AA | 1:2000@A1
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A
#16
Site two
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Site two
Section AA | detail detail1
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#17
Site two
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Site two
Section AA | detail detail2
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#18
Site two
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Site two
Section AA | detail detail3
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#19
Site two
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Site three The third site is a connection between the two sites. It begins with a simple tilting of the central pole on the highway. This create a moire effect in the distance and begins to shift the one-pt perspective. The light poles change colour to tie in to the field of marker poles extending down the axis site two. This strategy deals with the closed sections of the highway.
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#21
#20
Site three
#22
False geometries
False geometries Diagrams #22 show the false geometries that overlay each of the design sites in the way that the Razzle Dazzle camouflage works over the battleships.
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summary
Summary Through this documented work I have explored my aim of designing for a person in motion, to ameliorate the constant removal from the landscape that we experience in travel and attempt to reconnect the experience to the landscape. I had started with a broad study of the city experience, and focussed that down to a particular phenomonology of movement, that of the highway. I have then scaled this back to the city level to use it as an organising tool and brought the research back to the narrative and legibility of the city. I have always struggled with this level of organisation and in this project I have set the goal of getting away from the planimetric mode of design through satellite imagery and to challenge myself to develop a way of working with the larger scale. I have explored the roots of landscape architecture for inspiration. The historic practice of Landscape Architecture contains clues but does not expressly deal with these conditions which are a uniquely modern experience. Le Notre mastered the principles of perspective in his French
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formalist gardens. His designs centred around the viewpoint of the king as centre of the universe, whereas Brown and others in the English Picturesque movement applied them for the experience of the coach journey through the estate. With the speed of modern transport the relative scale of the city is not that different to the scale of these estates. The physical conditions of scale and speed are quite different to the early conditions of the city as are the social conditions of mass transit and the desire for customisation and personalisation of the city.
conclusions
Conclusion Why design for motion? The act of being in and engaging with the landscape is what I believe to be the essence of Landscape Architecture. Layering of space and time is fundamental to the experience of Landscape. By designing for highways I am exploring some of the extremes of movement in the city; high speed movement, neglected and disconnected spaces, large amounts of people across broad demographics. In Transit is both a design strategy relating to the moving subject and a reflection upon my own process of designing in the field of Landscape Architecture. I have grappled through my studies with the practice of design for large, international sites. Through this research project I have worked on testing designs through models, 3D programs and one-to-one scale installations. I have reflected upon these and my past designs and looked for ways to develop a process to take through to the larger scale. I have then tested this strategy via an international design competition in a large remote site. I have explored the roots of landscape architecture for inspiration. The historic practice of Landscape Architecture contains clues but does not expressly
deal with these conditions which are a uniquely modern experience. Le Notre mastered the principles of perspective in his French formalist gardens. His designs centred around the viewpoint of the king as centre of the universe, whereas Brown and others in the English Picturesque movement applied them for the experience of the coach journey through the estate. With the speed of modern transport the relative scale of the city is not that different to the scale of these estates. The physical conditions of scale and speed are quite different to the early conditions of the city as are the social conditions of mass transit and the desire for customisation and personalisation of the city. Through these approaches stemming from the traditions of landscape architecture, I have aimed to approach designing for movement in a new way that will give me an understanding of design for a variety of public spaces. As a student with limited time and resources it is easy to fall into a mode of designing through plan using Google Earth or other aerial imagery and available CAD material. The brief of designing for motion and to recontextualise the subject has challenged me to think intensively about the experience of the space I am designing in a multidimensional way incorporating space and time.
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Bibliography
Text references
Section 1 Derrida, J, 2001, Writing and Difference, trans. Alan Bass. Routledge, London, p. 278 Ingold, L, 2010, ‘Spatial Perception in Infrastructural Context’, in HighwayING, Springer-Verlag,Vienna, p. 8 Turner, V, 1967, “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage”, in The Forest of Symbols Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, p.106 Section 2 Lissitzky, E, cited in Bishop, C, 2005 Installation Art: A critical History, Tate, London, p.48 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaux-le-Vicomte Section 4 Ingold, L, 2010, ‘Spatial Perception in Infrastructural Context’, in HighwayING, Springer-Verlag,Vienna, p. 8
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Bibliography
Image references
Section 1 #29 burnsdavid.com #30 http://www.core.form-ula.com/2008/11/10/programmatic-moire-organizations/ Section 2 #07 Boyle, J, 2010, Anamorphosis in Early Modern Literature: Mediation and Affect’, Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington, cover image #08 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2008/09/03/anamorphosis-by-felice-varini/ #09 http://www.generativeart.com/salgado/anamorphic.htm #10, #11 http://www.generativeart.com/salgado/anamorphic.htm #12 http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/3110/print #13, #14, #15 http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/11/modernist-art-in-camouflage.html #16 http://www.tzg.com.au/projects/craigieburn-bypass #17, #18, #19 http://www.woodmarsh.com.au/projects/detail/e/ Section 3 #01 http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanrealities/5987910908/ #03 http://mtlunescodesign.com/en/projet/YUL-MTL-Moving-Landscapes-International-IdeasCompetition #04 http://fluidnewyears.com/_blog/Montreal_New_Years_Eve_Blog/tag/Montreal,_Nightlife,_Fluid/ http://montreal.streetviewtours.com/montreal-essentials/montreal-neighborhoods-streets/quartier-desspectacles #08 http://projectsreview2010.aaschool.ac.uk/html/units.php?unit=99&name=603 Section 4 #01a http://www.ecofriendlymag.com/2009/12/29/page/5/ #01b http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=north-carolina-and-virginia-ask-for-2009-12 appendix #01 Kentridge, W, 2008, Da Capo, Charta, cover image #02 http://www.artthrob.co.za/09feb/images/kentridge08a.jpg #03 http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue15/kentridge.htm #04 http://www.channels.com/episodes/show/12885461/William-Kentridge-The-Nose-OperaCurtain?page=3 #05 http://www.areasucia.com/2011/07/18/istvan-orosz-2/istvan-orosz-03-2/ #06 http://www.jonwiltshire.com/television.html #07 http://samizdatblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/democratic-consumption-servile.html #08 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TWUP_Jerusalem_190810_1.JPG #09, #10 http://nadav.harel.org.il/Bridget_Riley/ #11 http://www.virtualmagie.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/258030/Spectacle_Le_Cube_de_ Francois_ #12 http://www.panoramio.com/photo/24260627 #13 http://izismile.com/tags/Paris/ #14 http://art-documents.tumblr.com/post/309773999/tim-noble-sue-webster #15 http://cubeme.com/blog/2010/08/19/shadow-art-by-tim-noble-and-sue-webster/ #16 http://irenajurek.blogspot.com/2011/08/tim-noble-sue-webster.html #17 http://ps1.org/exhibitions/view/60
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#03 #04
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#01
influences
William Kentridge William Kentridge creates sculptural works and animations that are design to be seen in motion. The 3-dimensional composition forms a 2D image at one vantage point. He describes them as disolving into chaos but conversely they can be seen as creating order from disorder or as having a hidden order that we are enticed to discover.
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#08
#07
#06
#05
Anish Kapoor Anish Kapoor’s work creates ambiguities of depth, perspective and space. His mediums are reflective surfaces or highly light absorbing materials that engage our visual faculties and challenge the perception we take for granted. Although this is not directly related to my exploration of anamorphosis, the distortion of space that he explores works well in relation to it. It also relates to a field of anamorphosis called catoptric which uses mirrors to realign a distorted image.
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#09
influences
#10
Bridget Riley Bridget Riley is one of the most famous and prolific exponents of opart, visual art created from optical illusions. “Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing.� Her work explores the creation of three-dimensional effects with twodimensional patterns.
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influences
#13
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#11
Francois Abelanet Abelanet uses anamorphosis to create urban landscape installations. The illusions work on 3D geometric forms that appeared when viewed from one perspective angle. The designs work best for photographic images but he manages to create interesting landscape forms in the process. They interest me mainly as an application of landscape materials to anamorphosis.
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Tim Noble Tim Noble’s works are similar to those of Abelanet, however in this instance the light point take the place of the viewpoint. The focus of the light projects the illusion on to a viewing surface. This allows it to be viewed from more than one angle. The effect is enhanced by framing the sculpture as the initial view then revealing the image. The contrast between the waste used as a medium and the beauty of the image adds to the spectacle.
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#17
#16
#15
#14
influences
Animation Speeds 100km/h = 1666m/min or 1.66km/min or 27m/sec 60km/h = 1000m/min or 1km/min or 16.6m/ sec 1min @ 25fps = 1500 frames @ 15fps = 900 frames 25 fps 1 frame = 1.1m @100km/h 1 frame = 0.66m @60km/h 15fps 1 frame = 1.8m @ 100km/h
1 frame = 1.106m @ 60km/h
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YUL-MTL site study
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YUL-MTL site study
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Project A mapping
Deer Park Bypass
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Project A model
Deer Park Bypass
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