Alp ark master thesis university of liechtenstein msc arch laurentiu tiberiu stancu

AlpArk

Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu

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AlpArk Alp House, Traunstein, Deutschland

Author: Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu laurentiu.stancu@uni.li FS120197 Master Thesis For obtaining the degree of: Master of Science in Architecture( MSc Arch) University of Liechtenstein Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning Concentration in Sustainable Architecture Assessor: Prof. Dipl.-Arch. ETH Conradin Clavuot Studio Assistant: Dipl. Ing. Robert Mair Font: Minion Pro Printing and binding: ©Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu

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Dedic această carte bunicuței mei Pufulete, bunicului meu Ilie si tatălui meu Bebe, al căror spirit veghează asupra mea si mamei mele Andorina si mătușii mele Babi.

I dedicate this book to my grandmother Pufulete, my grandfather Ilie and my father Bebe, whose spirits watch over me, and to my mother Andorina and my aunt Babi.

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Table of contents

Abstract

11

1.

Introduction

13

2.

2.1.

2.2.

2.3.

2.4.

2.5.

2.6.

2.7.

2.8.

2.9.

General theme-Alpine architecture Introduction The time in the Alps A story of shelter in the Mountains Axis Mundi-the fire place as a generator of life The Alpine house-a pure manifestation of constructive logic The soft skin of the house The household as an organic system Alpine infrastructure-artifice versus nature Sustainability in the Alps

15 15 16 18 19.

20 22 23 24 26

3.

3.1.

AlpHouse and AlpBc project.

General information

29 30

4.

4.1.

4.2.

4.3.

4.4.

Traunstein and the site of the project General information History of the city Urban development and layout The site and its traces

33 34 38 42 46

5.

5.1.

5.2.

5.3.

5.4.

5.5.

5.6.

Themes related to context Introduction The maypole and the “Zunftzeichen�

The Chiemgauer dances The vernacular Bavarian constructions Traditional urban layout in Bavaria Architecture and industry in Traunstein

49 49 52 53 54 58 59

6.

6.1.

6.2.

6.2.1.

6.2.2.

6.2.3.

Theoretical framework of the project Introduction The building and its time The building and its presence in history The embedded time of the building The building, the climate and the perception of time

61 61 62 62 62 63

6.2.4.

6.2.5.

6.3.

6.4.

6.5.

6.6.

6.7.

6.8.

The building and the human body The Architecture and its ruins Architecture and the original forms of dwelling Architecture as metaphor Space and structure.

A question of place Artifice and anture Conclusion of theoretical research

64 66 68 72 74 76 78 79

7.

7.1.

7.2.

7.3.

7.4.

7.5.

7.6.

7.7.

7.8.

7.9.

7.10.

7.11.

7.12.

7.13.

7.14.

7.15.

The project Inspirations The design process General concept Urban situation Architecture Structural idea Timeline and use programme Proposed functional layout Spatial typologies within the building Material concept Energy concept Constructive details Scale models The building and the seasons The building after time

81 82 94 104 105 108 114 122 124 132 134 135 136 140 142.

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8.

Conclusions

147

9.

9.1.

9.2.

Sources Bibliography List of figures

149 150 151

10.

Aknowledgments

157

11.

Affidavit

159

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Abstract

This thesis aims to create a comprehensive statement about a personal approach to architecture within the specific academic context of the design studio of Conradin Clavuot at University of Liechtenstein.

For the winter semester 2014-2015 we travelled in Germany, through the Bavaria region, to the city of Traunstein. The topic of the studio is to design a masterplan that focuses on the promotion of traditional alpine crafts. Within the overall proposal the focus is set in designing a house for the training and teaching of these values. Our endeavour is part of a larger framework of people and institutions involved in keeping these traditions alive.

The main theme of the studio is the Alpine building culture and the core of the research gravitates around alpine life and architecture. This research should inform a design sensible to its environment and iconic in a sense that it has to speak about its origin in the way of constructing and living in the Alps.

The topic of the project addresses the imaginative power of architecture and the result of the design should have an iconic status capable of communicating traditional values of the Alpine settlements.

of personal interests and fascinations within the field of architecture.

The research deals with the imaginary of these different realities resulting in a project that tries to position itself at the threshold between reality and dream.

The purpose is to create a design that is working outside the idea of programme and deals with fundamental themes abstracted from a traditional way of living and constructing in the Alps. The design methodology transfers these themes into a formal vocabulary that focuses on the imaginary potentials of form and the atmospheric qualities of space. The design itself will use space, structure, light, material as a priori elements that have the power to define use.

Working within this framework the research will draw from a fundamental architectural vocabulary and answer the question: Is it possible to work outside the idea of functional programme and create spaces that have the vocation of being inhabited naturally by being embedded in a specific cultural context ?

This brings into question the metaphoric function of a building and requires an immersion into the poetic realm of architecture. As a result, the research methodology is based on relating the general themes of the project with universal imagery that spans over disciplines like painting, photography, movies, dance, craft.

The first part of the research focuses on uncovering elements of alpine lifestyle and construction. This is followed by a personal overview of the cultural context of Traunstein and its surroundings.

The results of the first part are then conceptualized into key ideas that form the basis of research in the territory of architecture that will, in turn, support the conceptual framework of the project while being a statement 11

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1. Introduction

The general theme of the project subscribes to the topic of contemporary architecture in Alpine environments and the sustainable development of Alpine settlements. In particular, the aim of the project is the research of the relationship between vernacular alpine architecture and architecture in an alpine urban environment.

We work in the City of Traunstein close to the Chiemgauer Alps. We find here a typical Bavarian city located in the flatlands and framed by the presence of the Alps.

The main theme of the project is a house for craft and the aim of the project can be summarised in questioning if we can we keep alive traditional crafts of the alps by translating them in an institutional environment typical for urban context.

Craft is an important theme that defines our reality and keeps us connected with our roots. While rural environments change, traditional crafts are slowly fading away, alienating us from a reality of meaning and the sensuality of hand-made objects.

This topic is relevant within the current focus on sustainability that brings into question the return to the available resources, material and local work force and skills.

This brings us back to the traditional societies that still keep traces of the primitive way of living. We try to learn from it and by contributing with our technical knowledge we strive for a new ethic of construction.

and architecture as an embedded expression of human presence. Thus, the current research will try to establish what the connection between the architecture that arises from a natural rhythm of traditional living and the architecture created with an academic critical overview may be.

Design programme.

The task of the thesis project is to imagine a master plan that should create an ensemble dedicated to the promotion of Alpine cultural values.

Within the general master plan the focus of the studio is the detailed design of the AlpHouse, the building that constitutes the centre piece of the ensemble.

The general master plan has the following room program: 1. workshop area 390 m2 2. exhibition and competence centre 230 m2 3. seminar centre 260 m2 4. education area 85 m2 5. housekeeping 60 m2 6. information and advice 40 m2 7. foyer and cafĂŠ 135 m2 8. boarding house 160 apartments approx. 4000 m2 9. youth hostel 180 beds approx. 1500 m2 10. car parking house 200-300 cars approx. 5000 m2 11. start-up centre approx. 1000 m2

This project brings symmetry into question . Learning from vernacular and constructing in the city. This questions the paradigm of urbanity enabling us to reconstruct our reality more closer to a harmonic relation with nature and with the fundamental needs of comfort.

This project aims to position itself in the field of academia while trying to understand the tension between architecture as an academic discipline 13

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2. General theme-Alpine architecture 2.1. Introduction

The framework of the project will be organised around the general theme of Alpine Architecture.

Thus, this book starts with a quest for understanding the alpine built environment and this requires an incursion into the forms and meaning of the life in the Alps and its manifestation in the built environment.

Furthermore, the specific character of the project’s location sets the research in a field of abstraction asking a specific question: How can we bring principles of building in the mountains to an urban environment, set outside the Alps, in the flatlands?

To answer this question, the following research is structured in such a way as to identify tools that can help the development of a project that captures the essence of the relationship between man and nature, between nature and artifice, and get a glimpse into the rules of construction in the challenging environments of the Alps.

Moreover, the following paragraphs will offer a glimpse into a personal way of understanding and sensing the life in the mountains. As any expression of life has its own powerful sensuality, it is the purpose of this research to create a balance between, firstly¬¬, a rational abstraction and understanding of the rules governing Alpine life and construction, and, secondly, a more subjective view that creates the start towards a personal approach to the current project.

The final result should be a project that makes use of the pragmatic results of the research while still keeping a strong emotional character that draws from personal experience in the alpine “world.” Furthermore, academic distance towards the field of research is maintained by positioning the subject in the field of abstraction and critical observation.

It is a project of three worlds that come together into the reality of the city of Traunstein.

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2. General theme-Alpine architecture 2.2. The time in the Alps

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The reality of any environment is set within a certain perception of time and the presence of a particular rhythm. This project tries to draw from the perception of time in the mountains and is working with the idea of rhythm.

How do we perceive time in the mountains?

Here the climate comes in-the sun, the clouds, the fog, the wind. The experience of time is really close related to the sensuality of the skin and eye.

fig.1(left side) The shadow of the mountains as a measure of time.

fig.2,3 The water mill is ticking away in the rhythm embedded in the slope of the mountain.

Moreover, time in the mountains is measured between the shadows of the mountains. The edge of the mountains acts as the hand of a clock. This edge is also a measure of one’s territory but also as a threshold to another world that can be one of dream and mystery.

In the same time the rhythm of life in the mountain brings into question a particular relation between people and land, weather and seasons.

From here the big question arises: Can we bring the time and rhythm of the mountains in a city in flat lands where we are so far from all these realities?

fig.4,5,6 Going up and down the hill, harvesting the hay - measuring time and landscape.

The main concept of the project tries to answer this question and aims to define the buildings own time and rhythm of use which can draw from the life in the mountains. For this, a connection must be established between time and the tools we use as architects.

Time comes in the building with light and structure makes way to light.

So the structure becomes a tool in working with time. In addition, sun brings warmness in the building through its openings and states its presence in the cold winter days or hot summer ones.

fig.7,8 The structures for drying hay and wood-tools for measuring time.

Also, time leave his traces on the mare substance of the building-the material changes and transforms with the changing of the weather and seasons. In this way the material used becomes an important actor in dealing with time.

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2. General theme-Alpine architecture 2.3. A story of shelter in the Mountains

In the process of understanding alpine architecture is necessary to question the start of architecture in such kind of environments.

fig.9 A personal interpretation of the evolution of alpine shelter.

What was the first expression of dwelling in the mountains?

Revealing in this process was a trip into the Magic Wood, a climbing space in the heart of the canton of Graubunden. It consist of a steep valley carved in the rock by the torrents of the river. One side of the mountain is dense alpine forest populated with large rock formations. Due to rock fallings or other natural phenomena some trees fell down creating an architectural dialogue with the existing rocks which in their turn offer infinite geometries an opportunities for shelter.

One can imagine the same landscape thousands of years ago, when the first people arrive in this kind of valley and searched for shelter. Maybe first they found the cover of a small cave under a rock where they made fire. The warmth get into the cold surface of the rock creating an inviting space.

Nevertheless the wind , the rain and the snow still kept creeping in.

Learning from the surrounding these first people started to cover the exposed surfaces of the rock with trunks of trees and then cover then with leafs. Thus, the first traces of what we can call a house appeared.

Next, after observing that the water going down the slope still kept going into the cave people learned to lift the resting surface of their shelter on a pile of rocks-the first idea of socle emerged.

Furthermore, learning from the tectonic of the trunks of trees resting one on top of the other people started to modify ans assemble the wood pieces in vertical constructions which become the first walls.

Step by step the archetype of the alpine house can be identified: The strong foundation of stone and the soft shelter of wood resting on it. In the middle the fire…

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fig.10 Image from the “Magic Wood” , a famous climbing site in the canton of Graubünden.

The landscape of the steep valley gives an idea about the possibilities of finding shelter.

2.4. Axis Mundi-the fire place as a generator of life

When talking about the archetype of the house there is one thing that is always a constant in the traditional forms of construction-the presence of fire.

After establishing the archetypical form of building in the mountains we have to turn our attention to the presence of the fireplace that, especially in the cold environments of the mountains, becomes more than a functional element.

fig.11,12 The fireplace acts as a symbolic artefact organizing the life of the house. Its intricate architecture is generated by the diversity of activities it generates.

The fireplace is the centre of the house and the life inside the house is organized around it: cooking, sleeping, playing, resting, drying clothes.

The scenes of everyday life are condensed near to the presence of the fire.

One could say the life of the house is symbolically encapsulated in the entity of the fireplace.

There is also a strong connection between the fire, which is also the energetic core of the house, and the natural resources available. The fire can only exists in the presence of the wood gathered from the neigbouring forests. This brings into question the relation between man and nature and creates a specific rythm of life that has to deal with gathering fire wood while taking care of the future availability of this resource.

It can be said that the fire as the center of the house extends its grasp in marking a specific relation betwen the life in the house and the landscape.

The formal presence of the fireplace with the smoking chimney gives a sign of the life inside the house while creating a vertical axis of the house that speaks about a clear relation between the life inside the house, the earth and the sky.

Traditional life in the Alps, as in all the traditional societies, is always lived with a clear grip on the reality of the earth and the elements while gazing to the sky.

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2. General theme-Alpine architecture 2.5. The Alpine house-a pure manifestation of constructive logic

After establishing the role of the fire as a symbolic structural element we return to the formal expression of the house.

fig.13

How is the form that encompasses the life around the fire?

The main striking element about the alpine constructions is that they always speak sincerely about the conditions of the climate, the resources available, the functional requirements and the structural requirements.

They express an embeded wisdom that encapsulates the experience gathered by past generations.

We start with the strength of the stone foundation that holds the house embedded in the ground while offering protection from snow and water.

The strength of the stone walls may extend to the upper levels where the resources permitted and the wind conditions where harsh.

Most of the time, the upper levels are constituted of an assembling of wood elements with different sizes and geometries. The order of the elements speaks exactly of the role of each one. It is like a giant puzzle of wood in which each piece talks with the connecting ones and in the meantime tell the story of the skill of the craftsman that worked them.

The roof crowns the house while establishing a clear response towards the rain and snow-the slope of the roof must allow the snow to fell not when it wants but when the constructors want it to.

The interiror spaces are also clear related to a specific logic of dwelling and energy consuption-the rooms are low, modulated on the wood elements of the construction, providing effciency in the thermal conditios of the interior.

The only exuberances are manifested by the intricate carvings of the most important structural elements on their edges-as like trying to crown the house at its endings and create a dialogue with the Other-like putting a ring on a finger or earring‌ 20

fig.14

fig.15

fig.16

fig.17 21

2. General theme-Alpine architecture 2.6. The soft skin of the house

One defining element of the house is how its formal expression and facade transmits the life of the inhabitants.

Travelling around the villages in the alps that still are connected with the original and simple ways of life one notices some small details: peppers drying on a nail fixed directly in the skin of the house, a broom resting close to the door, tool resting on special allocated places, hay drying on the facade or just some beautiful flowers hanging a window.

This way the house gets an aura of home, speaks about the family living there creating a dialogue with all the other houses. Is almost like the house gets a personality of its own becoming a member of the family that lives there-the house becomes a living thing.

In addition the skin of the house is strongly binded with the reality of the natural environment.

First, by the way it responds to the changes in the weather and the passing of time. The materials of construction keep traces of the elements and grow old and transform with time showing that they are part of nature and emphasizing the character of the house as a living thing.

Secondly, the strong functionalty of the facade that it sused to hang tools for working the land, or for drying wood or certain food gives a clear statement about the occupation of the inhabitans in relation to a particular period of the year and show the traces of transformed nature as pure expression of dwelling.

Moreover,the materiality of the house makes it subject to constant care and attention that give it an ambeded emotionality that ties it even more with the one it shelters.

The alpine houses and barns have a “living� skin that mirrors the nature while giving each structure a personality strong related to the one of the users.

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fig.18-21 The skin of the alpine house shows the traces of everyday life while offering clues about the occupation and aesthetic qualities of the people that inhabit it.

2.7. The household as an organic system

Within the traditional settlements the unit of the community is the household. This contains in it all the necessary things for the life of the family-the places of living, the places of work and storage of goods and offer sshelter for the animals which are an important part of the livelihood.

fig.22 The alpine household negotiating the limits imposed by the conditions of the natural topography.

The formal expression of the household is a clear manisfestation of the functionality of the different parts and the functional relations between them. The constructions and the spaces in between keep the traces of daily activities and can be understood as a model of life.

In the same time the layout of the household tells the story of the family and its dynamic which is in a direct relation with time and expresses itself in the form of each constructive element of the ensemble by the successive addition or subtractions.

In the bigger scale of the settlement all the chages within the households create an image of a living community-household, village and landscape become relat eand transform together in the continuum of time.

The system of the household has also a special relation to the the ideea of limit. In the mountaneous regios the topography allows for specific relation between the construction environment and the available buildable land. This brings aspecificity in the growing dynamic of each household bringing diversity in their formal expression.

fig.23 Hay barns: solitary structures that extend the grasp of a household into the productive alpine landscape.

The availabilit yof resources determines also the dynamic of construction.

The living necesities makes for the search of fertile lands that are marked by bringing new constructions belonging to the households-such as hay drying barns. These structures are displaced from the main household as alienated presences in the steep landscape working as outpost for “controling� the landscape.

The house and its amenities act as an organic system that exists in a specific dialogue with time, teritory and the life of its inhabitants.

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2. General theme-Alpine architecture 2.8. Alpine infrastructure-artifice versus nature

Taking a step forward in time, after establishing the first forms of constructions in the Alps, we arrive at the struggle of men to connect with each other.

fig.24

Going out of the house and meeting others was always a struggle in these environments especially in the harsh weather. This struggle is a clear manifestation of man trying to tame nature and establish its own formal grounds upon it.

In this endeavour the straight line of men meets the winding lines of the walleys or the steep height of the stone walls. This encounter generates spectacular structures that have the single purpose to generate rational space within the irationality of the mountain topography.

The beauty of this structures lies in their scale and geometric purity that responds in direct and logic way to the forces they have to withstand.

This logic is in direct dialogue with even the smallest of the mountain houses which is generated by the same principles of rationality, logic and need. As the mountain houses the impresive structure are marely masses of transformed nature. May they be of concrete, metal or wood, they show how men shape their environment by using the resouces at handthere is a great facination in taming the rock of the mountain with the same rock liquified, worked and shaped in pure geometrical forms and then reinforced with iron extracted from the mountain itself.

There is also a great beauty in this mountain (infra)structures that transcends their constructive logic and scale-it is the creativity behind the constructive systems and the surprinsing spaces one can find within the constructive layout.

Maybe the best example of this is the traffic infrastructure that we can find in the mountains. Tunnels, bridges, aqueducts and retaining walls are clear sign that bring the rationality of the human forms within the powerful forms of nature while offering a great variety of constructive forms and aesthetic qualities.

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fig.25

fig.26

fig.28

fig.27

fig.29

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2. General theme-Alpine architecture 2.9. Sustainability in the Alps

In order to discuss the subject of sustainability we must confront the widespread use and meanings of the concept that get more and more facets.

For this treason the following paragraphs try to approach this idea from a personal point of view that acts at the threshold of technical definitions and aims to draw conclusions from the many facets of the alpine way of life .

In this endeavour it is first necessary to find the accepted definition of the term itself.

Sustainable 1. capable of being supported or upheld, as by having its weight bornefrom below.

2.pertaining to a system that maintains its own viability by using techniques that allow for continual reuse 3. able to be maintained or kept going, as an action or process 4. able to be confirmed or upheld 5. able to be supported as with the basic necessities or sufficient funds The definition offers already a basis for discussion-such ideas as continuity, reuse, support, basic necessities, viability of a system.

These basic terms can be directly related to the reality of a certain way of life and it is our task to evaluate it in this terms.

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Thus, the constructed realm becomes an expression of the particular conditions of the natural setting while being articulated by the materials at hand. This can be translated as an awareness towards the climate and a strive towards working with the realities at hand and not going against them that is materialised in highly efficient constructions in terms of material use, functions, usability and maintenance.

Going beyond efficiency and functional logic we can observe that the household is the focus of a constant process of care and maintenance.

This provides a long life for the constructions and makes it part of the emotionality of its inhabitants-the house is an emotional being that lives and changes together with the family.

Moreover, there is an embedded intelligence in the energy saving methods and ideas we can find in the vernacular alpine constructions. Energy productions is directly related with the resources needed to produce it and the human effort required to acquire them. Therefore the concept of construction and dwelling is directly tied with the energy issue. These interrelation between all the elements of life is a characteristic of the life in the Alps and makes for an ethical model of life.

Learning from this ethic and taking the energy principles and upgrading them with new technologies at hand can help us reach a level of energy saving that can respond to the overall scarcity in resources that we are facing nowadays.

The architecture in the alpine areas is characterized by a thoughtful and efficient use of local available resources. These are praised as a support of life and are used with consideration to their capacity of renewal. One can say that in these traditional environments there is an “harmony� between men and nature that keeps a balance between the expression of human life and the natural environment.

Also, the building traditions and crafts surrounding the alpine building culture are constituents of a cultural heritage that must be taken into account in an ethical development this areas.

Craft is a primordial expression of human life and carry with them the possibilities of expression of life. Crafts are important constituents to any way of life by creating a direct relation between the people and the possibilities of transforming and using the resources available.

In the Alps, any constructive gesture is a direct response to the challenging and diverse environmental condition offered by the mountains.

The craftsmen are important pillars of the community biding it together.

Their skills are treasures that must be keep alive and cultivated within the

practice of architecture.

This can only help create a string dialogue with our historicity and traditional values and provides continuity within the development of any community.

In addition, alpine villages offer a model of community life and values.

These is of outmost importance in a time when people are more and more alienated from the public urban realm.

In the life of the village each individual and household function in a clear dialectic between individuality and community.

Alpine buildings and settlement patterns can become a model towards a new approach to architecture that is sensible towards the life of each individual, the use of natural resources and has the power to become an expression of its cultural background.

To conclude, the Alpine way of life offer few ideas that can frame a perception of sustainability that can inform the basis or an ethical approach to architecture: -awareness towards climate conditions -the use of local, renewable resources -identifying and responding to particular needs -integrating time in the process of design -emotionality of construction -community values -encouraging handcrafts -energy production directly tied with the efficiency of use and resource consumption -promoting local cultural values

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3. AlpHouse and AlpBc project

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3. AlpHouse and AlpBc project 3.1. General information

The task of the design subscribes to a general fretwork of AlpHouse and AlpBc project which are international initiatives that bring together different European countries around the Alpine regions towards the common interest of preserving and learning from the traditional Alpine lifestyle.

AlpHouse compiles the general fundamentals of alpine architecture and energy efficiency and at the same time pays particular attention to regional specifics. In this way different regions can learn from each other and benefit from concerted action, while the diversity of their architectures and educational measures is kept alive.

The following paragraphs are extracted from the official platform of the program.

Local and global perspective – the Alpine Space in the international context

“The Alpine Space comprises unique natural and cultural landscapes.

These have produced a wide range of characteristic building types, which emerged out of a long-term adaption to climatic and geographic conditions. Today they form an important element of the attractiveness of the Alps as a space for living and recreation.

Seen from a local perspective the approach of AlpHouse helps to preserve the attractiveness and competitiveness of the various regions of the Alpine Space. It contributes to raise the usage value of their building stock and to preserve and develop the intelligence of endogenous settlement structures while reducing urban sprawl. Simultaneously theAlpHouse approach supports regional cycles of material, energy and economy as well as the innovative strength of local enterprises. In this way it stimulates thinking and acting across generations in a sustainable way, and it contributes to preserve the distinctiveness of the Alpine Space as a unique cultural heritage in the centre of Europe.

If we want to preserve and use this cultural heritage, we must bring it into alignment with the challenges and needs of today. We should try to understand the principles of traditional alpine architecture, integrate them in present-day construction, and develop them further. In this way traditional architecture can also be combined with modern technologies and requirements for energy efficiency.

AlpHouse aims at promoting such a farseeing approach to renovations in the Alpine Space. The project explores and collects knowledge and skills in the various regions and passes them on to craftsmen, architects, planners, and decision makers – so that they can develop individual local solutions oriented towards a common understanding of quality.

Transnational perspective – diversity and concerted action The transnational perspective is part of the project layout: AlpHouse strives to develop a common methodology to register architectural and geographical data that can be applied throughout the Alpine Space. By this instrument the diversity of the regions can be recorded in a common grid. Subsequently the findings will be made accessible and applicable transnationally by the qualification and information offers of AlpHouse.

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Seen from a global perspective the approach of AlpHouse contributes to a reduction of CO2emissions. The Alpine Space produces a minor proportion of the global emissions, but its model function as a geographically and climatically extreme space creates a considerable leverage effect: It serves as a paradigm for the development of transferable approaches that show how the overall ecologic footprint of human settlements can be optimized by • applying and updating regional architectural principles in a competent way, • respecting specific geographic and climatic conditions, • using renewable energy sources and local materials, • encouraging small scale economic cycles, and • informing and qualifying the local players comprehensively. (Handwerkskammer fur Munchen und Oberbayern http://www.alphouse.eu/)

Since December 2012when the funding for the AlpHouse ended, the activities of the program, are continued by the project AlpBc. “The project AlpBC will define and implement strategies and measures to preserve and advance Alpine Building Culture in the broader context of territorial development and ecologic sustainability. It aims at enabling local actors to capitalize on this outstanding cultural asset as a source of regional identity and economic development.

The central elements of AlpBC are a) the implementation of inter-municipal planning concepts. b) the stimulation of regional closed loop economies in the building sector, c) the implementation of a network of regional centres and contact points for transfer of knowledge and technologies on building renovation to SMEs decision makers and administration, and d) the implementation of participative governance processes and consultancy instruments for policy makers and regional authorities.

Many of the well-established offers of AlpHouse will be carried on by the new project.� (Handwerkskammer fur Munchen und Oberbayern http://www.alpbc.eu/)

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4. Traunstein and the site of the project

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4. Traunstein and the site of the project 4.1. General information

Traunstein is a town in the south-eastern part of the Federal Republic of Germany, and is part of the free State of Bavaria. The city is the capital of a larger district of the same name.

fig.32

Geography The city is situated along the river Traun at 591m above sea level in the heart of the Chiemgau region, 15 km North of the Chiemgau Alps, and 11 km east of the lake Chiemsee. The area of the city is 48,53 km². fig.30

fig.34

fig.31

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fig.33

Accesibility

fig.36

By car Traunstein is well connected to the local and nationwide road network.

First of all there is the highway A8 between Munich and Salzburg which offers motorists a fast and easy way to travel to Traunstein from everywhere in Germany or other parts in Europe. In addition the roads B304 and B306 connect Traunstein with its hinterland.

To reduce the traffic in the city centre Traunstein started to build a bypass.

Inside the city, several streets ensure that everyone reaches their point of interest as quickly as possible.

For car users, there are a variety of car parks close to the centre totalling 3000 spaces.

By public transport By train Traunstein is directly accessible from all parts of Germany.

Moreover the railway lines to different airports link Traunstein to the rest of Europe and national Airports can be reached quickly.

In addition, for pedestrians there are different elevators to get access to the elevated city centre. fig.35

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Climate

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fig.37

fig.39

fig.38

fig.40

Geology

Demography The population of Traunstein is of 18944 inhabitants with a density of 390/km2.

fig.41 Map of rock formations in the area.

fig.43 Graphic of population growth.

fig.44 Graphic of age categories.

fig.42 Example of transverse profile of the ground.

fig.45 Graphics of natality, mortality and mobility.

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4. Traunstein and the site of the project 4.2. History of the city

Records in the archives of the Church state the presence of land possessions in the area as far as 790 along with some medieval defence construction that date as far as 10th century.

fig.46

Nevertheless, the city itself, named as Trauwenstein-”castle on the Traun” was mentioned in 1245 in a manuscript in the Baumburg monastery.

Most likely the castle was the domicile of the local Lord and was surrounded by a small settlement. The castle was strategically situated at the edge of a plateau surrounded by the river Traun.

The first to expand and fortify the settlement was the family Wittelsbachers-a German/Bavarian dynastic and European royal family. They seized the opportunity to control an important salt route over river Traun from Bad Reichenhall to Munich.

Since 1275 Traunstein has been part of the state of Bavaria as it was previously a territory of Salzburg and at the beginning of the 14th century, Traunstein was granted the status of a town.

In the history of the town we can identify few important events and facts that shape our understanding of the city’s development.

Salt production Salt production is an important factor in the history of the town. It began in the 17th century, facilitated by the construction of a wooden brine pipeline from Bad Reichenhall. The pipeline was constructed between 1616 and 1619 by the master builder of the court, Hans Reiffenstuel.

The salt works, finished in 1786/87, assured the survival of salt production in Traunstein and brought significant wealth to the town. Moreover, a new social community, which was known as “Au” was formed around the salt production complex.

Salt production in Traunstein was finally shut down in 1912 and in 1914, the former independent community “Au” became part of Traunstein.

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fig.47

During the First World War what had previously been the site of the salt production facilities became a camp for over 1000 civilian prisoners and prisoners of war.

fig.48 Traunstein 1809

Town fires In its history, Traunstein was struck at least twice by significant town fires: In 1704, when Hungarian “Panduren” set the town on fire in the course of the Spanish War of Succession, and in 1851. However, the “first town fire”, which is still familiar to all “real” citizens of Traunstein and is still taught at school today, hasn’t been confirmed yet. Only archaeological excavations can show whether Traunstein had really suffered a catastrophic fire before 1400.

Nevertheless the fire in 1851 destroyed again almost the whole town.

The great fires spread to almost 100 houses including the Town Hall, the County Court, the Main Salt Office, the Pension Office, the Church and several gates and towers except the Upper Tower.

Just like in 1704, Traunstein would again be rebuilt in a few years with the medieval plan of the town square being preserved to a great extent while the facades received a new face in the style of the current time.

During this process, in 1857, a fire response plan was enacted for the first time in the town history.

Traunstein after 1933 The year the National Socialists seize the political power in Germany is the beginning of a period of persecution for political dissidents and Jewish fellow citizens. Traunstein did not make an exception so by the end of November 1938 all Jewish residents of had been forcibly removed.

The political resistance during the war was present by the actions of the town priest, Josef Stelze, who was placed briefly in custody and of Rupert Berger, Bavarian People’s Party representative and the first post-war 39

History of the city

elected Mayor of Traunstein, who was incarcerated for a period in the Dachau concentration camp.

Between 1939 and the end of the war Traunstein lost 523 people and another 73 were registered missing.

The war During the Second World War Traunstein was the target of American aerial bombardment four times: on November 11 1944, on January 21 1945, on April 18 1945, and finally on April 25, 1945. During the last bombings, the heavy air raids destroyed much of the Traunstein station area and killed over 100 people.

The month of May of the same year marks a tragic trace in the history of the city - after passing through the city a train with Jewish concentration camp detainees head to Surberg, to a sub camp of Dachau concentration camp where 61 of the detainees were shot. Here, there is a memorial commemorating the tragic event.

On May 3 in 1945 Traunstein surrendered to the allied forces.

From 1948–1972 Traunstein was a district free city and from 1972 it became capital of the district of the same name.

The flooding The presence of the town along the river Traun makes it vulnerable to flooding. Thus some areas of Traunstein close to the River Traun have been subject to flooding on numerous occasions, most notably in 1899 and again in 2013. (TraunsteinLocalGovernment;TraunsteinLocalGovernment)

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fig.49 Traunstein 1870

fig.50 Panorama of Traunstein. In the lower corners we can see the salt Mine complex compiting in size with the city.

fig.51 View of Traunstein 1704

fig.52 Panorama of Traustein 1840

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4. Traunstein and the site of the project 4.3. Urban development and layout

On the course of the historical development of the city we can identify few important urban actors.

The Church of St. Oswald Build in the 14th century, the church marks the centre of the village crowning the central urban piazza within its well defined boundaries.

The church was affected by the city fires in 1371, 1704 and 1851. Nevertheless its core corresponds to the built configuration from 1675-1690 planned by the architect Kaspar Zuccalli.

The city fire of 1851 destroyed the roof of the tower and the chancel arch.

In 1885, the western part of the church was built, with the main portal and the tower in its present form. The church was last renovated in 1967.

Jacklturm The gate tower crowning the west part of the main square was destroyed by the 1851 fire.

150 years later friends of Old-Traunstein, contributed to the reconstruction of the tower that is now closing the gap in the skyline of the city.

Lindenbrunen Until the 19th century the administration of the town secured three wells in the town square to provide citizens with water and also were central places of communication and of social life. According to their location, they were simply referred to in the ancient texts as „upper, middle and lower fountain in the square.“ The survivor of the historic trio is the Lindlbrunnen. (Middle one)

fig.53 The jacklturm before the 1851 fire.

fig.54 The central squqre of the city crowned by the St. Oswald church.

fig.55 Representation of the Lindlbrunnen from 1834.

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The Viaduct

fig.57 The Viaduct.

The „decorated keystone“ of the 105 meter long and nearly 30 meter high viaduct was set on July 19, 1859 after 17 months of work.

The construction of the arched bridge demanded that the flow over the Traun had to be redirected to a new riverbed. Today, the city can claim with pride the highest bridge in the main train route from Munich to Salzburg.

The Wandelhalle The programme of the building which can translated ad-litteram as a promenade hall can offer a glimpse into the formal manifestation of a lifestyle from the past times of Traunstein. The architecture of the building with its strong elongated character showcases a pure structural space that offers generous openings to the outside while providing shelter for a wide variety of activities.

The functional programme of the building is characteristic to the urban environments of Germany which makes it important in understanding the cultural framework in which we have to act.

The architecture of the Wandelhalle can offer a valuable architectural model in creating an expressive architecture with a flexible use.

fig.58 The Wandelhalle

fig.56

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Urban development and layout

The salt mine

fig.59

Without a doubt, the most significant urban factor in term of scale is the historic salt extraction complex. Acting as a ÂŤ village in a village Âť the complex balanced in scale the core of the historic town of Traunstein.

Behaving as an alien to the well-established social framework of the city the salt mine had its own social dynamic. This gave birth to a new community acting at the edge of the one of the city.

The centre of the complex was balanced between the still exiting chapel and the archetypal cross shaped building housing the ovens for the salt extraction that is no longer present.

Around the two iconic constructions the buildings of the complex unfold into linear arrangements. Their geometry showcases a clear rationality that can be tied to the idea of the efficiency of production.

The typology of developing the buildings on a longitudinal axis mirrors the length and rhythm of the wood stacks that showcase the material used to power the impressive ovens in order to produce the salt.

The stacks are positioned at the end of long infrastructure that allows for the transportation of wood and connects the ensemble with the source of wood in Bad Reichenhall.

The whole ensemble is part of a wider system that ties the city to the opportunities offered by the surrounding landscape.

Nowadays the remaining buildings of the complex are used for social housing and apartments. This is a statement about the strong flexibility of the layout of these buildings giving an idea about an architecture that works with structural and systemic principles resulting in spaces with a great variety of uses.

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fig.60

fig.61

The Franciscan monastery

fig.62

fig.63

The convent is another important historic presence that acts in a similar way as the salt mine by alienating itself from the urban context.

The religious ensemble includes the land owned by the Franciscan order in the vicinity of the main buildings that is structured and regulated according to the internal needs. The buildings and the transformed landscape work as a system with strong geometric character.

Moreover, as shown in the historic plans the buildings forming the monastery where part of a process of addition and growth within the general rules of the overall layout.

The ensemble of the monastery works as an “Imago Mundi”-a world with its specific internal rules that allow for flexibility and freedom of growth.

The formal expression of this “world,” dominated by the scale of the church, forms a strong landmark beside the urban layout of Traunstein.

Nevertheless, the monastery was not acting in isolation from the city.

From a social and economic point of view monasteries are strongly connected with the community life , negotiating between the dogmatic seclusion and the life of the city.

This short overview on the layout of the city illustrates a strong balance of scales in the built environment and showcases an overlap of iconic buildings. This forms the basis of understanding the urban context within the flow of history. (Traunstein Local Government)

fig.64

Among the urban actors described both the monastery and the salt mine ensemble can offer an example of how to deal with an idea of a thematic master plan that should act at the threshold of the urban layout and acting in the same time according to specific internal rules that position it between an alienating presence and a dynamic urban actor that connects with the city and contribute to the life of the community.

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4. Traunstein and the site of the project 4.4. The site and its traces

The site itself gives enough sources of inspiration. Torn apart by the war bombings it still keeps the traces of the ancient railways that allowed the heavy train wagons to carve their paths through the land and bring goods to the storage facilities, of which few are still present on the site.

The place is a kaleidoscope of materials, smells and textures-it is as rough as a mountain edge. Metal, concrete, wood and stones from the old history of the site give way to scattered nature. Is a place where matter was transformed by human action and nature is taking over the abandoned land.

In addition, the character of the site can be placed at the threshold of infrastructure, nature and urban presence. It is a flat land perfectly framed by the railways to the South, a green hill to the North-West and structures used for storing wheat. Also, due to the vicinity of the railways the site is completely opened to the South.

The former use of the site left traces that tell about its vocation to be central and in the same time marginal within the city while being “cut” from it buy its use. The morphology of the site is marked by its former functionality living place for action within this strong character.

The place is also marked by a secondary “cut” between the former railways and the area of the storage facilities. This split was marked by a row of functional buildings from which the majority are long disappeared.

That the place currently finds itself in a state of abandonement speaks attests to the marginalisation of its function. The challenge is if and how to bring it back to the city.

Our intervention will be placed within this reality trying to negotiate the existing elements while stating its own presence. It will be a house about the railways as ticking clocks, about a traumatic past, about industrial production, about the caesurae within the site, about the presence of nature and about the city.

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fig.65-67 The aerial photos of the site show its former use and its character as a place at the threshold between the city and the railways.

fig.68-70 The existing buildings on the site, that were used as storage facilities, showcase a particular construction principle. Their structure is divided into “strong” elements ,represented by a basic concrete frame construction, and “soft” elements-represented by a wood construction. The two components are kept together by the massive perimetral walls that gives the building an appearance that speaks about its rationality and inner order. In addition, the overall constructive layout is completed by a intricate technical infrastructure.

All these elements overlap creating a balance of familiarity and strangeness within the general perception of the building.

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5. Themes related to context 5.1. Introduction

Between the framework of the general theme and the realised project we have the site which manifests itself as a concrete place on earth. It is a place in an urban context which is part of a general cultural framework.

The following research is a personal incursion into themes specific to the culture of Bavaria and Traunstein. The aim is to gather a series of ideas from the cultural and social facts of the researched area that are strongly embedded in the life of the community.

The methodology of work is characterized by a combination of objective research and observation with personal interests and ideas.

The results of this research are connected with architectural ideas and try to enrich the design vocabulary.

All the themes collected here will form the basis of a design that tries to create a direct dialogue with the local cultural values and bring added an emphatic value to the designed building and urban plan.

This short overview of inspirations taken from the area of work is important in understanding a personal methodology of work that tries to bring all the related factors of design into the final project.

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5. Themes related to context 5.2. The maypole and the “Zunftzeichen”

The first connection that can be made between the culture of the area and the theme of the project is exactly the formal presence of the craftsmen in the life of the village.

This presence is stated by the erecting of Maypoles (“Maibäume”) decorated with guild signs (“Zunftzeichen”) on the 1st of May holiday. Most of the important crafts that support the life of the village are gathered on the branches of this artificial tree to celebrate life and the spirit of the community.

This tradition is strongly present in the villages around the Bavarian Alps where the Maibaum is erected in village squares accompanied by traditional dances and music and sometimes a procession. In these areas the pole is usually painted in the traditional blue and white colours of Bavaria giving a statement about its strong symbolic value that places it not only in the centre of a village but also at the core of a wider cultural area.

The May Day ceremony marks the return of the summer and brings the inhabitants of the village together in celebration in the centre of the village. The maypole marks this centre and acts as a symbolic collector of the life of the village-an “Imago Mundi” that tells about the identity of the village and its inhabitants. In the same time it represents an image of Tree of Life that puts the life of the community on a vertical axis between the life on earth and the presence of God. In Germany and Austria this tradition dates from the 16 century although traces of it can be traced from Iron Age especially within the nations of Germanic Europe.

The long history of this custom together with its pure architectural qualities and symbolic meaning make it a valuable tool of a design that tries to encompass archaic images of the life of the community in order to give it strong emotional and metaphoric qualities.

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fig.71-74 The ritual accompaniating the setup of the Maypole.

fig.75 Example of traditional Guild symbols that decorate the Maypole.

5.3. The Chiemgauer dances

Another inspiration comes from the traditional Chiemgauer dances.

The choreography of these brings together man and women by particular gender moves and clothes colour. The men and women are dancing in pairs and shift among them according to a highly geometric pattern. The entire choreography is structured on a five point geometry that is even marked on the floors of the dancing halls.

fig.76 A personal interpretation of the geometry structuring the choreography of the Chiemgauer traditional dances.

Beyond the rules of the steps these dances offer another layer of fascination. The body movements of the partners are regulated by a structured formal attitude different for each gender that brings grace and geometry together.

The mathematical order of the dance is always present in the background of the colourful dance. It can be said that the dance itself offers a tool in understanding architecture: the beautiful spatial freedom of the dancers is set within the rules simple geometry accompanied by the rhythm of the music. The clapping of the steps marks clear point in space just as columns mark the points of connection to the ground.

The simplicity of a basic geometrical layout that creates a spatial diversity by a strategy of rhythm can be used as a clear strategy of design that will embed the project even more within the emotional substance of the citizens of Traunstein.

In addition, the perfect balance between the two dance partners also manifests itself in the way houses are painted in the rural areas around Traunstein: there are many examples where the main façade’s plastering is beautifully decorated with the image of a man and women as protectors of the house.

fig.77 The traditional dance costumes illustrate a dichotomy between the complementary red and green colors that act as symbols of the two genders while bringing another layer in the harmony of the dance.

This idea can work in the background of the project as a symbol for creating a building that is balanced and harmonious. The building should create a good background for Chiemgauer dances and should bring together feminine and masculine symbols in unity.

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5. Themes related to context 5.4. The vernacular Bavarian constructions

One should never forget about the established expression of vernacular buildings in the area of the Bavarian Alps.

While keeping all the general characteristic of alpine constructions the architecture of this area offers a great deal of specificity and particularities.

There are few elements that are strongly characteristic: -The size of the houses is considerable and gives the settlements a characteristic scale.

-The pitched roof crowns the house and its formal presence dominates the architecture. The details that form the structure of the roof become important architectural elements that show a great investment of effort and technology in their intricate details and crafted decorations.

-The skin of the house responds directly to the conditions of the environment emphasizing the direction of wind or the presence of sun.

-The living volumes of the house are vailed with balconies decorated by flowers that create an intermediate layer between the interior rooms and the outside.

-Excepting the farm typology in the flat lands far North of Traunstein the household is mainly organized within a generous volume that encompasses all the necessary functions of the house clearly expressed in the architecture of the facade.

-A wide diversity of plastering techniques.

-The parts of the facade finished in plaster are most of the time painted emphasizing the window as an important threshold between the interior space of the house and the exterior, or with decoration that speak about the family as a symbolic representation of the household.

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fig.78-79 Typical Bavarian constructions from the Chiemgauer Alps. The buildings are cut from their context to showcase their constructive features and to give an idea of the process of alienation when translating these elements in a new context.

fig.80-83 fig.83 Some examples of the intricate wood structures that form the constructive language in the Chiemgauer Alps.

fig.84

fig.84-85 The expressive construction of the roof combined with the impressive length of the buildings are constructive features found in the villages surrounding Traunstein.

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The vernacular Bavarian constructions

fig.86 The facade of the houses around the Chiemsee are often treated as a painted canvas that holds symbolic messages that connect the construction with the idea of family.

fig.87-92 The facades of the house in the area of study offer a great variety in the plastic treatment of the windows in relation to the different techniques of plastering.

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fig.93-96 Images of the different aesthetic qualities of a specific local stone formed from an agglomerate of rocks with varying textured sand colors.

fig.97-98 In some cases sculptural pieces are used besides painting as a tool for transmitting messages within the expression of the facade.

fig.99-100 One of the particularities of the constructions around Chiemsee is the functional clarity with which they respond to the strong wind in the region. The facades become a collage of textures and scales that provides a particular aesthetic quality which speaks about the conditions of the natural environment.

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The vernacular Bavarian constructions

During our research that covered parts of the Alpine Bavaria and also parts of the flatlands in the Chiemgauer area we detected a construction principle common in most of the Alpine environments: the households are extended along the longitudinal axis.

The particularity of the region in question is that here the use of this principle results in particularly long buildings that offer a diversity of scales and formal division along their length. These divisions correspond to the different functional characteristic of the spaces and are characterized by a great variety of constructive principles, materials and textures.

The growth of the household is mainly determined by the spaces with a more functional character; they negotiate the size of the house in relation with the productive needs of the family and its story.

Within the overall volume the spaces destined for the house are also underlined by receiving a more intricate detailing split between different types of plastering with painted decoration and wood cladding that are “binded� together by verandas clad in wood and decorated with flowers that veil the facade with their blossom.

Another defining feature of the functional volumes of the households is the clear separation between the ground floor destined for the raising of animals and the upper floor which is used for the storage of goods and the drying of hay.

Most of the time the access to the upper part is from large ramps which connect the landscape to the house. This vertical spatial dichotomy shows a clear constructive and functional logic and at the same time speaks about an attitude towards the landscape.

In addition, there is a particularity to the Bavarian farm house: their generosity-the buildings are dominating the landscape creating a statement of the presence of men in this area.

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Working in the framework of these principles we can identify in the research region three typologies of volumes specific to topographical characteristic: -In the Southern regions, in the Chiemgauer Alps we find a linear typology. The household is organized around the longitudinal axis starting with the volume of the house and negotiating the length of the house according to the possibilities of the landscape. Within the overall volume of the building the steps of construction are clearly visible.

-In the regions surrounding the Chiemsee lake we find a different typology. This is characterized by the articulation of the volume of the house on two perpendicular directions-one marked by the residential part and the other by the functional spaces of the household. Moreover, the latter category is set perpendicular to the wind in order to offer additional climatic protection to the house.

The ensemble is balanced by the strong presence of the ramp that connects the storage spaces in the upper level with the level of the ground.

As in the case with the linear typology, the direction containing the spaces for livelihood is spread along the longitudinal axis, emphasizing the growth of the household.

-In the more Northern regions, we find a completely different typology.

The household is organized and develops in time around a central courtyard. Moreover, while the first two typologies can be found in village type agglomerations the later acts as isolated entities within the productive landscape. It is a clear farm typology that reacts to the openness of the landscape creating a protected area between the volumes of the household in the form of the inner courtyard.

A new architecture in Bavaria could consider all this principles and can draw from the dwelling typologies of the area. These can be embedded in the logic of the project grounding it more and more into the cultural specificity of its location.

fig.100-103 Linear typology in the expansion of household.

fig.104-108 “Orthogonal� typology in the expansion of household.

fig.109 Courtyard typology in the expansion of household.

fig.103 57

5. Themes related to context 5.5. Traditional urban layout in Bavaria

The core of the urban setting of Traunstein is formed by the central piazza crowned by St. Oswald church and clearly defined by the continuous facades of the surrounding buildings.

The neighbouring streets that form part of the medieval core of the town showcase the same facade typology while providing direct accessibility to the central square.

This is a typical medieval typology that is very common in Central Europe starting with the 11th century. Nevertheless, in the cities in Central and Southern Germany this typology is enriched by few characteristics.

First, the roofscape becomes an important architectural element. The roofs create a play of scales and textures that enrich the overall perception of the cityscape.

In the same time the formal expression of the roofs give the extremely compact and long layout of the facades a vertical ascendance while giving every building a strong identifiable character.

Secondly, in the dense urban mass we can identify buildings that showcase their constructive system as part of the facade layout-the so-called Fachwerk. Thus, the structural system becomes part of the aesthetic of the building, bringing another layer of perception to the urban layout.

Third, we can identify a diversity of porticos with different proportion and constructive qualities. This additional layer gives spatial depth and contributes to the social character of the street.

Considering that in most of the cities where the medieval centre is still preserved this is subject to a collective image of centrality and a sense of identity and “affection� , all the principles identified here can be used in creating structures, urban spaces and aesthetic layouts that can be easily accepted and embraced by the community.

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fig. 110 A building row in a typical medieval Bavarian city(Rothenburg). Typology and unity within a continuous building front. fig. 111 Traunstein-elevation of a building front facing the main square, 1800.

5.6. Architecture and industry in Traunstein

While taking a trip through the German lands of the South one could could get a feeling of the strong presence of industry.

The signs of production manifested in the big chimneys of the factories or the overwhelming scale of storage depots and the intricate geometries of stone quarries, carry in them a certain perception of scale and an understanding of the relation between man and landscape within this territories.

The architecture of the industrial sites shares a generosity in scale and volume that connects it with the households in the traditional village.

In the same time they also remind of the powerful infrastructure in the mountains and become a clear statement of presence of men within this regions.

Furthermore, the thought of the industrial scale is directly connected with Traunstein and its history in salt production. The remains of the big salt extracting complex are still visible today in the city and they speak of this scale that is more connected with the scale of the landscape then with the scale of a urban houses.

fig.112-113 Buildings from the salt mine complex in Traustein.

The first image shows the building housing the main oven-the architectural image balances between the familiarity of the windows and the powerful alienating image of the central oven.

The second image showcases the building housing the storehouses and the dwellings of the workers. As in the case of the previous example the volume of this building is balanced between the domestic scale of the windows , the normality of the roof and the impressive scale brought by the thickness of the walls in the lower floors hosting the storage spaces.

In addition, the strong functionality of the construction is emphasized by the repetitive character of the roof. Overall, the buildings part of the salt mine complex illustrate a balance of scale and a diversity of architectural elements that speak about a balance between familiarity and strangeness within their architecture.

It can be said that the urban layout of Traunstein is a balance between a traditional medieval urban scale, the large scale of the industry and the particular landscape shaped by the river Traun.

In a similar way, but in a smaller scale, the condition of the site of the project itself speaks about the same balance of scales. Set between the railways and a residential area with a strong domestic character the site is characterized by the presence of former wheat storage buildings and the strong infrastructure of the railways used for carring goods.

As a result the site is split between the scale of infrastructure, the industrial scale of the storage buildings and the domestic scale of the dwellings that merge with a topography dominated by the presence of large trees.

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6. Theoretical framework of the project 6.1. Introduction

The previous research based on personal observations and study brings into question a series of themes and interests that will try to create a vocabulary of ideas that can be used in defining a strategic search for the theoretical base of the design. These are the following: • Time and rhythm.

• Original expression of dwelling.

• House as an image of the world.

• Artifice and nature.

• Architecture and the pure expression of structure.

• The building as a living organism.

• Addition in architecture.

• Sustainability and the vernacular way of life.

• Symbolic artefacts of community-Imago Mundi.

• Choreography as tool of architectural design.

• Typology.

• Alienation.

• The expression of boundaries in architecture.

• Materiality.

• The relationship between scale and program.

The current chapter will try to organize these themes, referencing them within a wider theoretical field in order to create a foundation for a design process that should fix the project in the field of academic architectural research.

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6. Theoretical framework of the project 6.2. The building and its time

6.2.1. The building and its presence in history

6.2.2. The embedded time of the building

Time acts as a measure of architecture. A building tells the story of its time. It is an expression of human endeavours that characterize a certain period in time. Thus, it creates a dialogue with past and future that questions the cultural values of the society that created it.

“The time of architecture is a detained time.” (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 31)

As architects we have to consider that we act in the continuum of time and our designs is a statement about our presence in history. Each project is a story in time that overlaps with millions of other stories of buildings, built or not, that shape our perception of reality and time. Within these we can identify fundamental human values that form a recurrent framework.

All the stories share a common theme which is a question of our presence in the world, between earth and sky, and our quest to find shelter and warmth.

In this search we can identify formal tools of action that become our vocabulary of design as architects. Using this origin vocabulary it is a first step in creating an architecture that can stand firm in the continuum of time.

The column, the floor, the wall, the window, the fireplace, the materials given by earth are more than formal means to a design, but rather are tools that create a dialogue with the timeless value of architecture.

Moreover, we have to consider the embedded knowledge of past generations and draw from it. This bounds furthermore our actions in the continuum of time and gives our endeavours a firm grip in the cultural context we are working. “…architecture detaches us from the present and allows us to experience the slow, firm flow of time and tradition …The time of architecture is a detained time.” (Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, Alberto Pérez Gómez 2006, S. 31) 62

There is another expression of time in architecture: a building has its own embedded time and acts like a time capsule. The perception of time changes as one crosses into the realm of the building and the architectural boundaries become temporal thresholds. “…the task of the arts seems to be to defend the comprehensibility of time, its experiential plasticity, tactility and slowness.” (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 78) Considering the words of Juhani Pallasmaa we can consider that drawing the outline of a building corresponds with defining a specific temporal quality within the perception of time of a certain site.

In understanding and controlling this expression of time it is necessary to try to understand what influences its perception.

There are two variables that need to be taken into consideration: the particular relation of the spaces of the building with the context and the environmental conditions and the way the human body interacts with the building.

6.2.3. The building, the climate and the perception of time There is direct connection between a place and time and any construction is strongly connected with the temporality of a certain context.

The experience of the time in the building combines the encapsulated time of its architecture with the time factors brought by the context.

The particular orientation of the building towards the cardinal points and is formal appearance is determining a certain relation with the passing of time.

The condition of the sunlight that touches the surface of the building and oozes in the interior spaces, the relation with the wind that breezes through the open windows depending of the time of day, the relation with the open sky, the way the rain touches the surface of the building and the sound it creates are forms of perceiving time.

Moreover, the distance from the nearest church - with the bell sounds that mark symbolic moments in time - creates a direct dialogue with the building. Thus, it becomes part of the rituality of the specific community surrounding it.

The presence of the nearby park is also important in the perception of time. It can negotiate the sounds of the railways or the city by the strategy of its landscape design, bring the smell of nature in the building and influence the perception of light passing through the building by the shadows of the trees-the spatial sensorial realm will unfold within the movement of leafs in light or the smells and colour specific to a certain season.

All the above elements show a direct connection between the physical realities of site and construction and the sensorial perception of the spaces that constitutes itself in a specific experience of time. Thus, they can become important tools in designing with time.

The materiality of the building is another important factor in the temporal experience of the spaces. The aging characteristics and the specific texture of the materials used in construction and finishing create a dialogue with time and the human body.

The position of the building relative to an urban or natural context is also determining a dialogue between the two that creates a perception of time that mixes the two realms.

In our particular case the presence of the railways that act as measuring tools of time by the rhythmic passing of the trains and the specific sounds they produce influences the experience of temporality within the building and becomes a tool in the design process.

Another important element is the visual relation between the building and the skyline of the city which brings into a dialogue with the timeline and historicity of the entire urban setting; the construction is embedded in the temporal image of the city.

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The building and its time

6.2.4. The building and the human body

The touch:

There is a strong bound between the body and the perception of time.

Our senses are shaping the way we experience time.

The haptic qualities of the building are a fundamental constituent of its architecture. It involves the materiality of the building and the design of the elements that come in direct contact with the human body.

Moreover, each sensory input we get is transported in the space of memory and creates a play of associations and emotions that influence our perception of the building and its temporality. Thus, the way the building communicates with the human body shapes the understanding of its architecture and its embedded time.

The following paragraphs will focus on the relation between the five senses and the perception of time in the building.

The sight: This is the first sense that enters in contact with the building; positioning already the visual characteristic of the building in our emotional memory and tuning the other senses in a state of expectation and urge of discovery.

We begin by understanding the scale of the building related to the human body and the scale context, the conditions of accessibility and the dialogue that the building creates with the surrounding. Next, we start to experience its exterior spatiality, materiality and formal details that continue to negotiate the distance between our body and the interior core of the building. This distance positions our body in a clear relation with temporality.

The visual experience while approaching a house influences our embedded archetypal forms of spatial memory that already call for a certain feeling in the experience of the building. Its architecture becomes an internalised experience, part of our emotional background. This, in turn, influences our perception of time.

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The handles of doors and windows, the texture of the walls and floors, the height of the steps of the stair, the height if the floors, are all generating a certain appropriation of the building and influence our experience of space and thus our perception of time in the most direct way.

The only act of climbing up the stair between two floors is already creating a particular rhythm in experiencing the building and the formal expression of the vertical and horizontal connection between spaces create a chorographical dialogue with the body influencing the speed of movement. In addition, the temperature of the spaces define elements in experiencing a certain slowness or fastness of the spaces while the thermal properties of the objects that came in direct contact with the human body appropriate the space to the users creating a certain feeling of comfort that acts within the perception of time.

The hearing: The sense of hearing creates a direct connection to the noise factors of the environment and their influence on the indoor spaces.

In addition, the construction of the building creates a specific sonority of the interior spaces which acts in relation with space and time, influencing our perception.

As all the other senses, the sounds we experience are also functioning in the space of associative memory: the cracking of the wood floor may recall us of walking down our parents’ house in the countryside and this already throw us in a subjective perception of time that creates an intimate relation with the building.

The smell: Approaching the building gives us a first sense of its realm. Passing by a fresh cut grass meadow or an asphalt street that reflects the smells of the traffic creates already a dialogue between us and the building. Next, entering the interior spaces we may be impressed by the smell of wood or the olfactory traces of the activities from the spaces within.

Each house has a particular smell that creates a dialogue with our olfactory memory. Each constructive element and the use characteristics of the spaces contribute to the alchemic creation; a particular smell that in turn puts our bodies in a direct dialogue with the space.

This smell is positioned in direct comparison with the memory of a personal archetypal smell of the house which creates a degree of appropriation or alienation between the user and the experienced space. “In fact, our existential world has two simultaneous foci: our body and our home. There is a special dynamic relationship between the two; they can fuse and provide an ultimate sense of connectedness, or they may be distanced from each other, giving rise to a sense of longing, nostalgia and alienation.� (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 125) The taste: Maybe the least influential sense when it comes to experiencing a building acts mostly in combination with smell and, in the presence of memory, creates connections with spaces in which this senses were dominating the perception-a wonderfully crafted wood table in the cafeteria can reminds us of a sunny morning enjoying our grandmother’s baked bread and transports us into the slowness and happiness of that time.

The architecture of the building is creating a bond with people once they approach its realm and transports them in specific time that relates with their emotional worlds.

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The building and its time

6.2.5. The Architecture and its ruins How can the building act as a ruin?

Within its dialogue with time the building shows its age and state of decay. The way the building ages tells the story of its architecture. Understanding the process of decay of the building is another step in grasping its constructive logic and architectural values.

The ruined state of the building gives hints about its origins and tectonic and the ideas they convey. In its ruin a building shows its essential constructive realities and faces its role in history.

The ruin is a compressed state of the building life and even the smaller left fragments tell the story of the life surrounding its architecture as a fallen leaf tells the story of the tree.

It is one of the quests of this research to identify how to strategically plan the building components starting with imagining their surrender to time and the elements. It is a way to try to understand the fundamentals of architectural design and the constructive elements as tools in the dialogue with time.

In addition, this is an exercise that aims at understanding the hierarchy between the elements of construction that balance between characters of permanence and transience.

There is a also a fascination regarding ruins that deals with their strong imaginary potential and thinking the building as a ruin can offer inspirations in the expressive possibilities of its form and embedded metaphoric possibilities. “Architectural ruins offer particularly potent images for nostalgic association and imagination, as if time and erosion would have undressed the structure of its disguise in utility and reason.� (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 75) 66

fig.114-115 In his project for the Bank of England from 1830, the English architect John Soane balances his design between the reality of the technical drawings and the imaginative power of his building in a state of ruin.

This is a clear example of a design methodology that makes use of the idea of the ruination of architecture in order to understand the qualities of the designed spaces.

fig.116 rawing by J. M. Gandy-“Imaginary view of the Rotunda and the Four Per Cent Office in ruins” of John Soane’s bank of England project, 1798.

fig.117 In his painting “The Abbey in the Oakwood” (1808–10), the German painter Caspar David Friedrich, illustrates the suggestive powers of the ruins positioned at the point of blending with the natural environment. Nevertheless, the remaining wall of the Abbey, that balances between the massive of stone and the delicate frames of the windows, tell the story of its architecture.

fig.118-119 One of the masters in representing ruins, the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, bring to life the architecture of the Ancient Rome by illustrating the ruins of its architectural masterpieces.

In the two engravings, “Remains of the aqueduct of Nero” and “Remains of the Temple of Neptune’s cells” the ruins are presented in the company of a human presence. The balance between the scenes of everyday life and the presence of the ruins creates a dialogue with time. The ruins shown here speak about the clear constructive qualities of the former monumental constructions illustrating their structural logic and its resilience in time.

The ruins presented here have a choreography of elements with a strong vertical character and rhythmic qualities that further emphasize the idea of a place brought by the presence of the people.

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6. Theoretical framework of the project 6.3. Architecture and the original forms of dwelling

“We must therefore experience the primitiveness of refuge and, beyond situations that have been experienced, discover situations that have been dreamed; beyond positive recollections that are the material for appositive psychology, return to the field of primitive images that had perhaps been centres of fixation for recollections left in our memories.” (Bachelard et al., S. 30)

fig.120 Stone circles of Senegabia, Gambia, Senegal.

The design will try to work with the idea of bodily and mentally embedded representations of dwelling. Identifying the primitive archetypes of dwelling that are part of our common consciousness is a personal interest that will inform the design process.

“A moving and invigorating architectural experience arises from the reactivation of images concealed in our historicity as biological and cultural beings.” (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 127) Getting a glimpse of the fundamentals of dwelling is an another step in controlling a design that works outside the field of functional programme and focuses on a wider understanding of usability an appropriation of space.

fig.121 Cornish Ancient Site, England.

In his study regarding the origins of architecture the Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori makes a synthesis of the primitive principle dwelling relating them to his design process: “During the Stone Age, humans came to recognize the following seven features of architecture: 1.Space surrounded by walls.

2.Pillars stretching towards the sky.

3.Fire sites.

4.Spaces within large caves that possess an opening to the outside.

5.Small spaces in which to retreat.

6.Collected natural materials.

7.An expression of things made by oneself.

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My architecture combines these seven qualities and reinforces them with modern science and technology. “ (Fujimori et al. 2012, S. 46)

fig.122 Pine cone hut in the Yatsugatake Mountains, Japan.

In a similar way with the Japanese architect, the present methodology of design makes use of these elements translating them into a personal approach to architecture that first works with abstraction and then brings them into the realm of materiality and tectonic.

In addition, the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard develops a psychology of the house around two defining principles: “ 1. A house is imagined as a vertical being. It rises upward. It differentiates itself in terms of its verticality. It is one of the appeals to our consciousness of verticality.

2. A house is imagined as a concentrated being. It appeals to our consciousness of centrality.”

(Bachelard et al., S. 17) The two forms of human consciousness questioned here are defining a priori our perception of constructed space and they form a basis in understanding the essence of the act of building.

In order to understand the prevalence of these original forms within the architectural space we must think that they began to articulate around the first form of dwelling which is ultimately the first shelter, so the first expression of a house.

“Architectural experience arises ontologically from the act of inhabiting, and consequently, the primal architectural images can be most clearly identified in the context of the house, the human dwelling.“ (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 129) It might be said that each architectural programme has in its core the fundamental image of the house, and should address within its formal articulation of spaces a feeling of sheltering and protection.

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Architecture and the original forms of dwelling

The closer a design is to master the primitive elements of dwelling the closer it will be to create an emotional dialogue with its users.

Moreover, another contemporary architect, Juhani Pallasmaa has thoroughly researched the forms of original expression of human dwelling and identifies the following: “In order of their ontological emergence, the primal images of architecture are: floor, roof, wall, door, window, hearth, stair, bed, table and bath.�

(Pallasmaa 2011, S. 129)

fig.123 Reconstructed pit house, Tokyo Maibun Archaeological Center, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa.

fig.124 Megalithic Dolmen of Iron Age period at Dannanapeta near Amudalavalasa, India.

Our experience in the realm of architecture is strongly determined by the configuration of these primordial elements. Thus, a good design should focus on identifying and controlling these elements and the relations between them.

fig.125 Poulnabrone dolmen in the Burren,County Clare, Ireland.

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fig.126 Banpocun, Shaanxi,China, Neolithic houses reconstruction.

fig.127 Sir William Chambers, Primitive Hut- an illustration to “The Origins of Buildings and Orders�, 1759. fig.128 Pupil of John Soane, Perspective of a primitive hut at the origins of DoricTemple.

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6. Theoretical framework of the project 6.4. Architecture as metaphor

Acting on the forms of primitive expression of dwelling we touch a territory of collective imagery that brings us in the realm of metaphor.

“The power of architecture lies in its deeply unconscious and collectively identifiable mental content that addresses us through embodied imagery and metaphor. “ (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 68)

fig.129 Representation of The Heavenly Jerusalem taken from a manuscript of the 11th century, the so-called “Apocalypse of Saint-Sever”.

This meta-form of perception adds one more dimension to the constructive reality of any building that becomes a vehicle for symbols and meaning.

Every architectural gesture is a vehicle for ideas which contains a certain idea about the world. “…architectural works are bound to be highly condensed metaphoric representations of culture, and these metaphoric images guide and organise our perception and thoughts.” (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 118) The closer we are in our designs to the fundamental values of dwelling, the more the building speaks to the people that come in contact with it.

It is a way to control the buildings usability and status within a certain community. “…authentic architectural images and metaphors re-articulate the primordial and historical essences of our existential experiences, concealed and stored in our genetic constitution and unconscious. “ (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 127) The building itself, while out of the drawing board and into the realm of materiality gets its own life and story and will be assigned with meaning.

It is the task of the designers to position themselves between autocratically assigning symbolic meaning or act outside of it. This makes the project an assembly of pieces each with its own meta-reality that construct together a story that should be a statement about a certain attitude towards the reality of the world.

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fig.130 130 John of Patmos watches the descent of the New Jerusalem from God in a 14th century tapestry.

The house as an image of the world (-image of the cosmos).

“Both artistic and architectural works are existential metaphors in which an entire world is reflected.” (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 104)

fig.131 Votive painting at the church of Sucevita Monastery, Romania, 180-the King Ieremia Movila offers God a model symbolizing the constructed church.

Any architectural expression is a mastering of our environment, a statement of our perception of the world. By establishing the limits of a tamed territory humans express their control of the environment-which is based on a certain understanding of the world-each man made boundary is an expression of encompassing a certain vision of the world.

“A house constitutes a body of images that give mankind proofs or illusions of stability.” (Bachelard et al., S. 17) Moreover, manmade structures are an expression of our will to change the natural realm according to an artificially created image of the world.

Each historical period illustrates this by its constructed environment from the farmlands and wine production landscapes to the large factories with their dominating chimneys. All these forms express a paradigm of surviving and ultimately they are an expression of the way we dwell…the smoke coming out from the coal factories are no more than the expression of the warmth in our homes.

fig.132 Sucevita Monastery-the church, Romania, end of the 16th century.

Every manmade architectural structure is, beyond its function and use, an expression of dwelling and has in its centre the house which holds in itself a primordial image of our being in the world.

“Architectural structures are simultaneously utilitarian constructions for specific purposes, and spatial and material images of our being in the world.” (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 67)

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6. Theoretical framework of the project 6.5. Space and structure

The building’s structure is the primordial expression of its relation with the gravity and the condition of the terrain and gives its verticality that constitutes the primitive expression of our presence in the world-the structure fights gravity and speaks about our gaze towards the sky.

The building process has a powerful symbolic connotation that tells about the grounding of the building and then the lift towards the sky.

In addition, tracing the structure coincides with marking a specific place on earth that the building will occupy; it is the first act of separating the world of the house from the outside world. Setting the structure is setting a direct relation with the reality of the world. The structure is the first element of construction and the last one to decay in the process of ruination and it speaks about the constructive essence of the building.

As the house can be seen as a representation of the world it can be said that the structural column holds in it the essence of the act of building. It is no wonder that in ancient times the column was a focus of decoration and storytelling: the column holds embedded the same metaphors of the world.

The imaginative potential that powers the formal manifestation of structure and the strong pragmatic character of the structural layout that responds to the physical reality of the world makes it an important element that brings together the two realms in a harmonic expression.

It is no wonder the fascination of the American architect Louis Kahn with the elements of structure. “…structure is the maker of light. When you decide on the structure, you’re deciding on light. In the old buildings, the columns where an expression of light-no light. No light, light, no light, light, no light, light, no light, light-you see. The module is also light-no light. The vault stems from it. The dome stems from it, and the same realization that you are releasing light.” (Quote from Louis I. Kahn, Alessandro 2013, S. 47)

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fig.133 Plan of Temple of Zeus, Syracuse, Italy, approx. 6th century. The space of the cella is dominated by the strange presence of a singular pillar. With no obvious structural purpose this may be a symbolic remnant of the central pillar of primitive expressions of shelter – such as the tipi. The column may be the connection between Earth and God within the enclosure of the main space of the Temple.

fig.134 Plan of Tomb, Taj Mahal, Agra, India, circa 1640. This plan is based on a basic tetradic principle-four generous structural elements-acting in between walls and column according to their mass-articulate around a central space. In addition, each “giant” fig.134 column acts like a spatial container being organized on the same square geometry. The structure of the tomb is fascinating in the way it overlaps the principles of division and subtraction in the organisation of space.

The structure creates a special dialogue with the light which the pure expression of being in the world. The structure ties the building to the reality of the world by creating a dialogue with light. In this sense structure is the defining element of the life within the house by determining the atmosphere and the climatic conditions in the house.

The closer the building is to the pure expression of structure, the closer it is to the essence of the world it tries to convey. The architectural qualities of the house are already clear when we decide on the structure.

Moreover, there is a strong connection between the structural logic of construction and the human body that creates a strong bound between the building and the people who experience it.

“When experiencing a structure, we unconsciously mimic its configuration with bones and muscles; the pleasurably animated flow of a piece of music is subconsciously into bodily sensations, the composition of an abstract painting is experienced as tensions to the muscular system. The structures of a building are unconsciously imitated and comprehended through the skeletal system unknowingly, as we perform the task of the column or the vault with our body.” (Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, Alberto Pérez Gómez 2006, S. 37) This comparison between the human body and the house showcases the possibilities of working with the structure in a layered way, creating a separation between strong and soft elements and conceiving it as a living system that connects organically its constitutive elements and the preconditions of the natural environment.

The design process following the current research focuses on structure as a defining element in the architecture of the building and tries to work with the column as a basic element in composing the general layout of the spaces.

fig.135 Plan of Trim Castle, County Meath, Ireland, 12th century. The structural layout of Medieval Scottish castles brings to light a spatial hierarchy between the interior spaces that showcase the importance of the main “room”. Its space is contained within the thick constructive walls while being a clear centre of the house in a direct relation with the cardinal directions-the main room is the Centre of the World. In the same time, the atmosphere of the diverse spaces is regulated by the thermal and the natural light conditions given by the thickness of the walls. fig.136 Plan of Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Ţūlūn, Cairo, Egypt, 879 AD. This plan provides a clear representation of the structural layout of the Mosque and speaks in a direct way about the spatial qualities of it architecture.

We can draw from it four spatial hierarchies that overlap starting with the central space contained in the centre of the building. The spatial complexity of the building is created just by the use of columns and walls.

fig.137 PPlan of Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1258. The entire constructive layout of the Gothic cathedrals works with columns and light.

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6. Theoretical framework of the project 6.6. A question of place

The limits In the story of built architecture the place is the beginning of things and in the dialogue between the place and the building the question of limits becomes fundamental. The building is an expression of its limits.

Marking the boundaries of construction it is a symbolic act of defining a new world-we take a piece of the reality of the world and we transform it according to our own idea of reality-marking the boundaries of the new, controlled territory alienates it from the existing context while giving a sense of protection.

The decision regarding the limits of our intervention becomes strategic in the making of architecture and shapes the building itself.

Inside and outside

fig.138 Pietro Crescenzi, representation of a royal garden, 13th century. the territory inside the walls is “controlled” by the use of geometry.

Nature is contained into rational forms and alienates itself from the untamed nature outside the marked perimeter.

fig.139 Representation of Hortus Conclusus, unknown author. The perimeter of the enclosed garden becomes the threshold between inside and outside, between the familiar and the strange. In the same time, the separating structure can contain spaces positioned in-between the two contrasting realities.

The entire process of alienating a territory and marking it with a new set of rules different from the rules different from the original ones subscribes to the basic dialectic of division between outside and inside. “...you feel the full significance of this myth of outside and inside in alienation, which is founded on this two terms.” (Quote from Jean Hyppolite, Bachelard et al., S. 212) In this light, the limits of the constructed space get another dimension that of a threshold between interior and exterior setting them in a clear dichotomy.

Furthermore, the threshold can act as a space itself, generating particular relations between inside outside and its morphology gives a measure of the alienation between the two while being an important tool in negotiating the split between the reality of the house and that of the world.

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fig.140 Fra Angelico, The Annunciation - Convent of San Marco, Florence, 1430-32. In this painting, the Virgin Mary is represented as a symbol of the Enclosed Garden which in turn can correspond to an image of the Heavenly Garden-The Paradise. Thus, the columns depicted here are markers of a symbolic territory in a clear detachment with the reality of the outside world.

Familiarity and strangeness “One of the basic problems posed by any context (landscape, urban, or architectural) is that of content. To be effective, my work must disengage itself from the already existing content of the site. One method to adding to an existing context and thereby changing the content is through analysing and assimilating specific environmental components-boundaries, edges, buildings, paths, streets, the entire physiognomy of the site. The site is redefined not re-presented.” (Serra et al. 2005, S. 45)

fig.141 Walking City in New York, Archigram,1964.

The work of Archigram illustrates the building as an “Imago Mundi”. In the same time it speaks about architecture and alienation.

Richard Serra speaks about an attitude towards the context that tries to alienate the work of art and create a dialogue between the existing reality and the abstract work of art. By the act of analysing a specific context we already position ourselves in the field of abstraction and any design decision is a dialogue between the ideas abstracted, our emotions and the revisiting the realities of the site.

In addition, any intervention within a site may it be a sculpture, an artwork or an architectural object can be understood as an act of violence that disrupts the existing context.

Until a certain point the architect works in a similar way as the famous sculptor. Reading the elements of the context and selecting what is relevant for the current work is a first step in the process of intervention.

If we work within the paradigm that architecture is an act of marking a inner constructed worlds then we might say that any building constitutes itself as an alien in any context and any case.

Nevertheless, beyond this abstract idea we work with formal cultural and physical realities that inform our design. These are the tools that help us to create a dialogue between the building and the context. Elements such as traditions of construction, scale, resources, or community values can help us to make an architecture that balances between strangeness and familiarity and thus positions itself in the flow of time and in the life of community.

fig.142-143 Giorgio de Chirico, Mystery and Melancholy of a Street, 1914 and Italian Piazza Metaphysical painting, executed in 1965, signed 1950. The two paintings balance between familiarity and strangeness by the masterful bringing together of common elements from an urban imagery. The juxtaposition of these elements in strange compositions and perspective creates an overall image of alienation when a human presence is added.

fig.143

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6. Theoretical framework of the project 6.7. Artifice and nature

In the dialogue between the building and the context there is another issue relevant for the place architecture has in the world. It is the relation that it creates with the natural environment.

fig.144 Richard Serra, Sea Level, 1988-96.

Architecture is a manmade discipline that manifests itself in the reality of the world as created artefacts that separate themselves in a clear way from the natural environment. The formal expression of man-made structures draws from an artificial, predetermined order that is often based on a rational geometry that contrasts it with the mysterious and intricate laws of nature. Thus, the alienated world of construction is abruptly cut from nature.

Nevertheless, there is a strong bond between nature and architecture: First, the geometric rules of construction are often abstracted from the direct observation of nature.

Secondly, while being grounded into the soil, the construction lifts up using resources offered by the earth itself and the degree of transformation of these resources negotiate the distance between the building and nature.

The way of building in our time is further and further from the reality of bare materials. Contemporary constructions are a collage of highly processed raw materials bringing a distance between the materiality of the building and the intrinsic haptic emotions of the human body.

In contrast, it is an interesting fact how well embedded in the natural environment all of the vernacular settlements from all different climatic areas are. In these environments nature and artifice are close together and the nature flows freely within the constructive reality of the house.

This harmonious expression of life constitutes often a prelude to nostalgia for an original way of life that fuelled the need for an architecture that can create a harmonious dialogue with nature.

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fig.145 Richard Serra, “East-West/West-East�, Qatar, 2014.

6.8. Conclusion of the theoretical research

The themes gathered in this research form the theoretical frame for the development of the project. The design follows these themes and gives a personal answer to the topic of the thesis project while offering a general view about a methodology of design that focuses on a broad understanding of architecture in a historical and theoretical context. The project will be a statement about my views on the world of architecture.

For the purpose of creating clarity within the process of design the following paragraph will showcase an overview of the main ideas drawn from theoretical research.

• The relation between architecture and the expression of time.

• Drawing from the sensorial experience of the architectural realm.

• The process of aging as a constituent tool of design.

• Investigating the design possibilities that arise from imagining the building as a ruin.

• The original archetypes embedded in a collective imagery.

• Working with basic, archetypal architectural elements and constructive strategies.

• The metaphoric dimension of construction and the suggestive power of architectural form.

• The building as a manifestation of Imago Mundi.

• Architecture as a recurrent manifestation of a primordial shelter.

• The structure as defining element of construction.

• Working with the relation between structure and light.

• The analogy between the human body and the structural layout of a building as a design tool.

• The critical approach in defining the limits of action within the site.

• Alienation and familiarity as constituents of architectural expression and the direct connection of this concepts with the dialectic between interior and exterior..

• Architecture at the threshold between artifice and nature.

• The materially of the building as a tool for negotiating the distance between architecture and nature.

• Learning from the vernacular expressions of the build environment.

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7. The project

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7. The project 7.1. Inspirations

Outside the field of the research presented so far, the design is based on a series of inspirations that have a strongly subjective character.

Nevertheless they are related with the basic themes presented so far and they form a diverse compendium acting at the edge of the main research.

The aim of the following pages is to grasp this additional layer of sources that informed the design process and to give an overview of the personal interests that have contributed to the development of the main concept of the project.

fig.146 The development of the house starting with a basic constructive archetype.

A visit to the Ballenberg Museum for Swiss vernacular culture offered a perfect example of this concept-the main house of the household mirrors the constructive and esthetical principles of a basic constructive unit.

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fig.147-149 Stacking as a basic human action A constructive layout based on the use of this principle would give the project roots in the characteristic imagery of the railway construction or alpine life.

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Inspirations

fig.150-155 The relation between material and time.

The aging of the materials that form the skin of the house is an important actor in designing a building that acts as a live entity within the flow of time reacting to the climatic conditions of the site.

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fig.156-159 Balance as another expression of the primitive fascinations of men.

A stroll through the valleys of GraubĂźnden Canton in Switzerland or Bavarian Alps offer views of spectacular man-made structures that question gravity and the basic relations between the components of a basic tectonic system based on staking stones.

fig.160 Balancing stone as an artistic act-art work

by Michael Grabb.

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Inspirations

fig.161-163 The architectural qualities of music instruments.

A visit to the Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels (Belgium) brought to my attention to a group of particular instruments from Asia: the Guqinand and the Qin The composition between the infrastructural wood element, the cords and the spacing marked within the length of these instruments is strongly connected to the tonality of each cord-the architecture of the instrument transcends in music.

Would it be possible to design a project that can draw from the possibilities of musical instruments in using structure, space and rhythm to create a harmonic order within the building?

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fig.164 Rationality and nature The sculptural piece by Richard Serra entitled Schunnemunk Fork brings a straight plate of steel within a natural meadow.

The materiality of this piece and its clarity within the landscape is a statement about the human presence in the world.

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Inspirations

fig.165 TThe structure as generator of space.

The structures destined to shelter Zepellins speak about a purity of constructive purpose and the generosity of the constructed space.

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fig.166 The wood ship construction-space is encapsulated in frames of wood and scaffoldings-the ship is a building before sailing away.

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Inspirations

fig.167 The architectural qualities of telegraph lines: elegant giants of steel bound by thin winding metal lines.

The pillars mark specific places in the territory while the electric lines create a visual soft censure within the natural landscape.

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fig.168-171 The covered wood bridges of the Alps-intricate wood structures that create space within a logic of transition.

The structural layout and aesthetic qualities of this bridges position them between infrastructure and house.

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Inspirations

fig.172-175 The structures used for creating a salted microclimate within the natural setting in Ciechocinek, Poland are imposing their length and they act as marking boundaries of the salt treatment resort.

These structures speak once more about the rationality of human intervention in changing and controlling the natural environment.

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fig.176-178 Repetition and length as tools of architectural design.

The two structures designed by Peter Zumthor, the Steilneset Memorial in Norway and the Topography of Terror in Berlin, showcase the power of a repetitive constructive section that allow for a rational development of the project within its longitudinal axis. The careful balance between the proportion of the section and the length of the building gives aesthetic power to the project.

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7. The project 7.2. The design process

fig.179 94

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The design process

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fig.180-189

fig.190

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The design process

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fig.191

fig.192-193

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The design process

fig.194-197 Design experimenting with the tools provided by the site.

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fig.198

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The design process

fig.199

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7. The project 7.3. General concept

The task of the project called for a thematic master plan. From the start the topic is governed by a strong general idea: bringing people together to celebrate traditional crafts and alpine culture.

The main focus of the project is a building representing Alpine architecture which should be fitted into the site chosen. This seems to aim for an architecture of alienation which should act in the space of imagination and suggestive power; a house as an alien that speaks about the construction in the Alps.

Going back to the simplest constructive acts that we can discover in the traditional way of life in the Alps we can trace a specific relation of the house with the landscape and with the life with the people living inside.

The house is always related to the evolution of the owners’ lifestyle, and it shows repetitive addition of functional volumes - the house is a growing “organism”.

Moreover due to the specific mountain topography, the expansion of the house is always determined by specific territorial limitations. This creates a strong link between the household and the landscape.

My concept tries to draw from this idea and aims to coagulate all the requirements of the master plan in a single building that creates a specific dialogue with the limitations of our particular site in Traunstein.

As in the vernacular alpine houses the idea of a growing organism is brought into the project scheme but in a formally planned way.

One could say that the main difference between the traditional approach and my personal one is the presence of the other; the critical eye. Within the framework of our profession we often have to work from outside the conditions of the project trying to control the outcome of our design. On the contrary, the vernacular house is conceived from within, from the needs of the family and the story of a life.

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Nevertheless, this project tries to draw from the principles and sensibility of the traditional alpine way of life in order to create spaces fitted for life. The focus will be on the quality of spaces that will unfold within a particular understanding of the programme required by acting within a flexible idea of functionality.

Program concept “This came out of no program, simply as speculations on the powers of architecture to set down that which commands technology; which really writes the program, because after all, if an architect gets a program from a client, he gets an area program. He, the architect, has to change the areas into spaces, because he’s not dealing only with areas. They’re spaces: it isn’t just ceilings. They are, they are - feeling, ambience. They are places where you feel something-different.” (Quote Louis I. Kahn, Alessandro 2013, S. 40) The design methodology tries to exclude the clear functional organisation of the spaces while focusing on the characteristics of the spaces that can create different atmospheres which would generate specific uses. The focus of the design is on scale, light, materials, degree of enclosure and fundamental relations between spaces.

The aim is to create an ambiguous functionality that can offer different opportunities for the users of the house to appropriate the spaces according to their ambiance and functional potential.

The outcome should be a design that tries to consider a great flexibility in the use of the interior and exterior spaces that can give the building a longer lifespan. Also, the proposed design should respond to different strategies of investment and construction planning and the programmatic needs of the city.

The proposal will try to fit organically into the life of the community of Traunstein as the household unfolds in the life of the Alpine village.

7.4. Urban situation

The idea behind the urban presence of the project draws from the traces and the history of the site.

The new building alienates itself from the two realities by lifting itself from the soil letting a transition space between the two sides of the sitethe building itself is an alien landed between this two realities emphasizing them and in the same time helping to create a dialogue between them.

The lifted building brings a new space to the urban layout. Is a transient space, an in-between presence, a covered space that hosts life between the two realities.

There is a strong caesura within the site already marked by the presence of the street that makes a division between a territory with strong functional roots that deal with the presence of the railways and one that situates itself at the threshold between city and industry, characterized by the two buildings used for storing wheat.

The overall height of the building positions it at a similar level with the highest existing building on the site; trying to create a dialogue in the proportion of the elevations and negotiating a proper natural illumination for the existing structures and the spaces in-between.

The overall strategy of the project tries to integrate all the existing buildings and bring them to the life of the city while creating a dialogue with the history of the site emphasizing its dichotomy.

Thus, the proposed building situates itself on the same spot as former buildings that followed the line of the road while creating a strong division between the two parts of the site.

This creates on one side a space which will have a strong urban character and on the other a space which will remain central and in the same time marginal to the city that hold the traces of the former use part of the railway system. This space will be transformed into a park that will speak about the relation between the anthropic and the natural. It will be a park where the nature takes over the traces of industry, where you can feel the smell of the green grass and in the same time the one of the rusted rails.

fig.200 Situation plan showcasing the proposed building in the general urban layout. The area towards the railways will be transformed in a park that follows the urban strategy of the city planning department.

The sensory experience of the park will spread underneath the proposed building and to the urban space on the other side, by the smells brought by the wind or the earth traced by the feet of the people.

Moreover, the park will be part of an existing strategy of the city planning department to develop a green belt along the path of the railways. Determined by the topography and the infrastructure of the site, the park will become the end point of this promenade emphasizing the position of the AlpHouse at the threshold between the nature and the city.

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Urban situation

fig.201 Situation plan with adjacent buildings and park. The building stretches on the whole length of the site as permitted by the imposed boundaries-the topography of the terrain and presence of the railways to the South and the traffic infrastructure to the North.

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fig.202 Situation plan with the transient space at street level. The infrastructural layer of the buildings and the different formal connections between the ground level and the first level are juxtaposed in-between the urban piazza towards North and the proposed park towards South.

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7. The project 7.5. Architecture

The project is a “line” that stretches within the site like a ruler. It should act as a presence between architecture and landscape that splits the reality of the site between an urban space and a natural park that brings into the building the fresh smell of grass.

As a formal presence, the building is stretched along the full length of the site; negotiating its boundaries while turning one side to the sun and park, and one northwards and to the city.

The “line” will be defined by its section which becomes a representation of “Imago Mundi”-working and living together under a roof.

The idea behind the conformation of the section house articulates on the dichotomy between the cellar and the attic and is based on the principle of verticality of the stated by Gaston Bachelard: “Verticality is ensured by the polarity of cellar and attic...”

(Bachelard et al., S. 17) While the cellar becomes the energetic core of the house and the infrastructural cave that embeds the house in the ground, the above levels are thought as a generous attic structure emphasized by its raw exposed structure that is lifted from the ground like an artificial tree.

While formally acting as a line within its context the origin of the building is set in the verticality of its constructive section.

“The well-rooted house likes to have a branch that is sensitive to the wind, or an attic that can hear the rustle of leaves.” (Bachelard et al., S. 52) The defining constructive elements of the building will be the blending between the main structure made in concrete and the secondary structure and the enclosures made in wood.

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While advancing vertically within the spaces of the building the slope of the roof becomes a dominating presence and the general feel of the interior spaces should recall the structure of the attic.

“Up near the roof our thoughts are clear. In the attic it is a pleasure to see the bare rafters of the strong framework. Here we participate in the carpenter’s solid geometry.” (Bachelard et al., S. 18) Moreover, within the verticality of the building , the secondary wood structure becomes denser and the enclosures smaller giving a sense of privacy and regulating the natural illumination and sun exposure of the interior spaces adding another layer to their atmospheric qualities.

Furthermore, the exterior enclosures are all made in glass so the structural layout becomes evident in the formal expression of the building. In the same time the interior spaces are defined by the constant presence of natural light and are thereby influenced by the atmospheric conditions.

“Je suis dans une maison d’estampes japonaises Le soleil est partout, car tout est transparent. ( I am in a house in a Japanese print The sun is everywhere, for everything is transparent.)

(Quote from Annie Duthill, Bachelard et al., S. 50) The basic section of the “line” creates a diversity of spaces defined only by material, scale and degree of enclosure. The spaces are structured vertically on giving a feeling of ascension. For the most spaces there will be no clear functional assignment. The indoor climatic characteristic and the structure of the spaces will define the use.

The entire building should act as a generous frame that accommodates life by offering shelter, light, warmth, accessibility, diversity of spaces.

The reality of the interior spaces is balanced between the scales of different spaces merging into the same reality: the working space and the space for intimacy.

fig.203

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Architecture

“…there must be a place of happening. A place of happening, and you say why can’t things happen the way they will. They don’t have to.(…) You present a quality, architectural, no purpose, just a recognition of something which you can’t define, but must be built.(…)…but it is a kind of area undetermined, spaces undetermined in their light, in various light, in various heights, and that you move around with a sense of discovering the spaces rather than being named for certain reasons.” (Quote from Louis I. Kahn, Alessandro 2013, S. 35)

fig.204 The Archetype

The design strategy behind the architecture of the building draws from the idea of the archetype. The building in its entirety should be an expression of a condensed form that holds in it all the principles of design. In the same time the archetype itself draws from a basic structural model.

In the end the entire building should speak about its very unit of construction.

The constructive process starts with a vertical pillar of concrete that touches the sky while embedded firmly into the ground- “the concrete columns are markers of time” (Quote from Louis Kahn) On the concrete structure it is fitted a wood frame that rests on the shoulder of the pillar while creating a dialogue with gravity. In the end we feel an outer shell of metal and glass that lets the light come in while protecting from the elements. From here the story of the building begins and the negotiation with the reality with the limits of the site and the budget.

“The spirit of the start is the most marvellous moment at any time for anything. Because in the start lies the seed for all things that must follow.

A thing is unable to start unless it can contain all that ever can come from it…” (Quote from Louis I. Kahn, Pallasmaa 2011, S. 102) This idea makes the entire building a growing system that deals with few basic constructive principles. This generates opportunities for staging the construction itself and offers the tool of a great flexibility of use.

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fig.205 The AlpHouse

“Iconic buildings(…) are condensed metaphoric microcosms, inhabited and lived metaphors, self-sufficient universes enclosed within the walls of these structures.” (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 104) These words of Juhani Pallasmaa express very clearly the imaginary power of the architectural project. This idea follows the development of the current project trying to position it in a world of metaphor while embedding in the reality of the site.

fig.206 Engraving with a Rosicrucian System, the symbolic structure of the “Argha,” “Arc” or “Ark of Noah” from the description of Moses, 1593.

There are, of course, different ways of interpreting the imaginary connotations of any project specific to any individual. Nevertheless, as presented earlier in the research, there are archetypical architectural imaginary forms that form with a strong collective character that can help in controlling the meaning of the architectural project. Moreover, as designers we can allow ourselves to make our own interpretations and give hints about the embedded ideas of our projects.

The intention following the design of the AlpHouse is to give it an expression that makes it similar to an Ark that carries the remnants of Alpine life and landed in Traunstein. It is metaphor of the Imago Mundi and the Noah’s Ark as imagined in the Christian Bible.

fig.206 Noah’s Ark in Bernard Lamy, De Tabernaculo foederis, 1720.

Of course there are differences. While the functional concept, overall wood construction and appearance bring it close to an ark the concrete cores are embedding it to the ground. This ship has the anchors down to this particular place.

The condition of the suspended wooden structure and the strongly rooted concrete cores speak about the ambiguous nature of the building. Is a building of that place but also of a suspended imaginary realm that speaks about a different world?

“The deepest architectural experiences bring us back to the originary unconsciously animistic and mythical world ; poetic images exude a sense of life and significance.” (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 128) 111

Architecture-facades of the AlpHouse

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fig.209

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7. The project 7.6. Structural idea

“There is in the design the consideration of the difference between the order of structure and the order of construction. They’re two different things. There is an order to construction which brings in the orders of time. They’re very much married to each other.” (Quote from Louis I. Kahn, Alessandro 2013, S. 47) “…because you recognize that structure has an order; that material has an order; that the construction has an order; the space has an order in the way of the servant spaces and the spaces served; that the light has an order because it has an order in the sense that it is given by structure, and that the consciousness of the orders be felt.“ (Quote from Louis I. Kahn, Alessandro 2013, S. 49) The idea of the structure draws from the archetypal forms of constructions and tries to define a basic vocabulary of elements that can be combined into a diverse spatial layout.

The basic element of construction is the column and the entire structural layout will be defined by the size and position of each column. The next step is to define space within the structure by a repetitive act of division of each column. Thus the space will unfold from each column.

Moreover, the construction of the building is defined by the basic dichotomy between strong and soft elements. Strong pillars and beams in reinforced concrete form the infrastructure of the building and support a wooden structure that is defining the outline of the building.

The basic relation between the two constructive elements define two categories of interior spaces: the ones defined within the concrete structure and the one created between the pillars and the wood construction.

The structural concept is also based on the idea of freedom in use and stepping the process of construction. The result should be a flexible framework that can accommodate a wide range of functions and an efficient grow of the programme in time.

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Allegorical engraving of the Vitruvian primitive hut, frontispiece of Marc-Antoine Laugier: Essai sur l’architecture 2nd ed. 1755 by Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen.

The primitive shelter showcased here balances between the rationality of the plan-a basic tetradic geometry, and the material condition of the elements of construction.

The house is positioned between nature and artifice belonging to none. In addition, the drawing brings forward the verticality within the structural pillars and the formal presence of the roof.

fig.211 Østerlars Church-image of the central pillars with medieval frescoes, Bornholm, Denmark, 1160. The interior space of the church unfolds around the central structural element that draws from the idea of a central column “holding” the main space of the church. Here, the pillar becomes a space itself changing the spatial hierarchy within the interior space-it can be said that the construction is supported by a spatial column.

fig.212-213 Hebrew Tabernacle, according to Calmet’s Dictionary of the Holly Bible with The Biblical Fragments, Charles Taylor, 1728.

This expression of a “portable” temple illustrates a basic principle of construction that deals with the dichotomy between the strong structure of the columns and soft shell that creates the outline of the building. Within this constructive logic, the columns are used as devices to create spatial hierarchies.

fig.214 Caribbean Hut, Gottfried Semper, published in “The Four elements of Architecture”, 1851.

The structure of the hut illustrates the same basic principles of construction based in the use of a basic roof supported by columns and adds the idea of rhythm and division to its constructive logic. Within these we can identify the creation of spaces with different characteristics of aperture and proportions along the longitudinal axis.

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Structural idea

The structural archetype.

The strong elements:

The soft elements:

The basic concept of the concrete structure draws from the design of the Maypoles. The idea is to abstract them into a functional element that recalls the Axis Mundi while supporting the entire building.

The wood structure is conceived as a spatial structure similar to the “bretbinder” elements commonly found in the wood construction industry.

The pillars are not punctual but conceived as a tetradic element formed from 4 columns and placed in the centre of each space. In this way the basic structure becomes a space in itself while creating the opportunity of an architectural enfilade that permits the viewer to grasp the entire length of the growing building while positioned in the centre of any space.

This concept is based on the idea of strong wood frames that are formed by putting together the wood boards left over from the processed tree trunks that are commonly too weak to use in construction. Thus, each part of the frame is in its turn made of a gradation of smaller elements.

Considering that each element keeps in it the structure of the wood fibres we may stress that the constructive elements talk about the main idea of the building of encapsulating time and measuring spaces.

In the same time each pillar becomes a marking element in the growth of the building and the construction of each new part begins with the symbolic consecration of the centre.

The wood structure is conceived to get denser towards the top of the building emphasizing the increasingly private character of the spaces while becoming stronger.

The constructive principle of the pillars themselves offers the opportunity to group them in a series that creates spaces for the basic infrastructural elements of the building such as fire escape stairs, installations and storage spaces.

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

fig.215 IIdeograms of the “strong elements” of the structure that showcase its origins in a tetratdic principle. The concrete infrastructure is divided into two types of elements-a group of four columns that articulate the served spaces and a group of twelve columns that contains the servant spaces and vertical circulations.

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

In this way the frame structure becomes more rigid towards the top so it can create a good connection with the concrete poles.

Moreover, the layout of the wood structure offers the possibility to add new floors and divisions in order to accommodate different layouts of spaces and functions.

The entire structural layout is calculated to accommodate a maximum of floor plans and loads possible for a building of this proportions, use and location. This adds opportunity for a free use during the lifetime of the building.

fig.216

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Structural idea-the archetype

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fig.217

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Structural idea-the building process of the AlpHouse

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fig.218

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7. The project 7.7. Timeline and use programme

The theme of time becomes a motive also in the approach to the design programme.

The project aims for a progressive construction of the programme starting with the refurbishment of the existing buildings followed by parts of the proposed building. The constructive concept is tuned to a flexible development of the functions required.

For the purpose of this project I will state a personal vision towards a strategy on the development of the site.

The starting point of the Alp house deals with the idea of marking the possible limits of building and it consists of two buildings, one that accommodates the competence centre and the other for the first of the workshops. The two buildings are facing each other and delimitate already a mental image of the entire building. In the same time they create a different perception of the space left in between. This will already be differentiated from the urban realm on the North and from the park to the south. It will be an in-between place, a place in transition-its vocation is set…

The next step is the addition of a new workshop and, on the other volume housing the spaces for foyer and exhibitions. The structure could be completed with the addition of the spaces for cafeteria, library and offices.

All throughout the process the necessary functions can shift and adapt within the structural framework of the building. The process of constructing the building should be a question of negotiating the space constructed and the space needed for different uses. “…intervention strengthens the experience of temporal continuum, a steady progression of time…” (Pallasmaa 2011, S. 79) The building process will create a specific dialogue with time. This will be expressed on both axes of construction: the steps of construction will act on the horizontal axis and the stages of occupancy on the vertical one.

The building encapsulates time.

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fig.219 The building process will create a specific dialogue with time. This will be expressed on both axes of construction: the steps of construction will act on the horizontal axis and the stages of occupancy on the vertical one. The building encapsulates time.

fig.220

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7. The project 7.8. Proposed functional layout

fig.221

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Proposed functional layout

fig.222 Plans of the AlpHouse Scale 1:500 Level -4.80 Level -8.20

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Proposed functional layout

fig.223 Plans of the AlpHouse Scale 1:500 Level +3.60 Level +/-0.00

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Proposed functional layout

fig.224 Plans of the AlpHouse Scale 1:500 Level +14.40 Level +10.80 Level +7.20

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7. The project 7.9. Spatial typolgies within the building

fig.225

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7. The project 7.10. Material concept

The materiality of the project draws from the condition of the site. This is defined by the presence of the railways both in present day and throughout its history-the materiality of the site is the materiality of the railways.

This combines aging metal, massive wood and concrete that forms the structural ingredients of the rail infrastructure. Traces of these materials are still aging across the site giving it a strong character.

In addition, the materiality of the project is strongly connected with the structural and energetic concept being split between the use of concrete and wood with the addition of the omnipresent glazing to the outside.

The structural layout is also generating a particular relation between the presence of wood and concrete all throughout the building. The relative proportion of each changes also in the layout of the section, the wood becoming dominant on the upper spaces. This relation between the presence of wood and concrete helps generate an interior atmosphere that calls for certain functions to inhabit the spaces. The intention is to create a space orientated towards working and public access towards the lower levels and more intimate, domestic spaces towards the upper part of the building.

The materials used are also chosen by the particular relation they could form with time and weather. The aging character of the materials and their reaction to the environmental condition combined with their availability in the region were part of the decision process.

The concrete used is made out of a specific stone aggregate gathered from the Chiemgauer Alps. This stone is composed from particles with a diversity of colours and shapes that give the concrete a particular yellow tint and texture while showcasing on its surface the treasures of the mountains.

The copper is used for its resemblance to the materiality of the metal rails in their aging process.

The wood is used for its renewable properties and its availability in the surroundings.

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fig.226-228 The materiality of the site is strongly characterized by the presence of concrete, wood and rusted metal that connect the site with the traces the railways.The project is connected fig.229 The primary structure of the AlpHouse uses concrete made from stone agglomerate specific to the Chiemgauer Alps-the traces of the mountains are brought into the holding force of the house hat embeds it into the grounds and give it a sense of permanence.

fig.230 The wood used in the building is divided into two categories: a “strong” one used for the secondary structure-that rests on the main structure in concrete and a “soft” one-agglomerate wood panels-used for the internal partitions.

fig.231 The external cladding of the building is made in copper for its aging characteristics that create a dialogue with time and with the rusted metal of the railways. Moreover, the metal shell illustrates the dichotomy between interior and the exterior of the building.

7.11. Energy concept

The building is conceived to get the maximum solar gains possible while offering the possibility of natural ventilation for each space.

The energetic concept can be discussed around the layout of the basic section of the building. The idea was to design a section that offers a buffer space around the interior spaces of the building that regulates the internal conditions of the spaces. This space offers shadow in the summer, acts as a horizontal ventilation shaft and also regulates the condition of the wind acting on the building.

This principle draws from a basic idea found in the vernacular buildings across the world - be it in hot climates or cold ones - the building needs a shell that negotiates the conditions of the exterior.

fig.232 Scheme of the energy concept of the AlpHouse.

ing with the climatic conditions. The idea is to create a thermal balance based on exchange of heat between spaces with different intensities of use.

The faรงade concept allows for controlled ventilation for each zone of the building. Each window frame is movable and reachable. This creates the possibility for the users to interact with the building itself creating a bond with it: the building and its users are one. Nevertheless, for the public spaces the natural ventilation will be assisted by a controlled artificial one.

The heating and cooling of the building are sustained by thermal pumps that embed the building energetically within the ground.

The next step is to define the specific shell this building requires in the Traunstein climate and the program conditions.

The entire building is treated with glazed surfaces between the regular wood framing of the facades. It is a building that works with the light and warmth of the sun-the wood structure lets the sun in while also offering shade in the summer days or during the warm hours of sunrise and sunset.

In order to collect as much warmth from the sun all the floor are treated in black concrete that acts a thermal storage mass and each ceiling is composed of dense wood beams that maximize the storage of heat.

In addition, the section is designed in such a way the temperature of the interior space increase with the height offering different possibilities of functions and programs across the building-the climatic characteristic joins the materiality and proportions of space in defining uses for the spaces.

The energy concept is also based on the thermal gains resulting from the use of the spaces. This connects even more the activities within the build135

7. The project 7.12. Constructive details

fig.233 Facade detail.

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Constructive details

fig.234 Detail of the general section.

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7. The project 7.13. Scale models

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fig.235-236

fig.237-239

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7. The project 7.14. The building and the seasons

There is a beauty in the way the vernacular constructions show the traces of time. The shell of the building woks with the climate and bears its traces. These enhance the materiality of the building, giving sense to the details and the use of materials. More than this the house gets almost human characteristics; it positions itself in a dialogue with time.

For this reasons I would like this project to take into consideration the weather, the seasons, the time.

The shell of the building is made in copper that will react to the rain, to the sun and the wind changing its texture and colour. Moreover, depending on the specific details and exposure to the climatic elements the wood will change differently creating another level of perception of the building.

Also, there will be another dialogue will be created- the one between the protected wood in the inside of the building and the exposed one emphasizing the difference between the two mediums.

On the other hand, the construction concept based on building phases will add another dimension of the building facade on its whole length.

In the same time, the building will show the process of growing by the way the copper cladding will change across the façade.

The connection between the building and the seasons will also be strongly showcased in the social interaction around and within the spaces created. The transparent enclosures of the house will allow glimpses inside the life of the house that will be strongly connected with the climatic conditions outside and the transient space under the construction will shelter people from rain or sun creating opportunities for different activities and interactions between people.

The result is a building that should become “alive� adding another chapter to the story of time.

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fig.240

fig.241

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7. The project 7.15. The building after time

There is an embedded poetry in the presence of the ruins that I always found fascinating. They convey the essential characteristics of the architecture while giving its measure by the passing of time.

The strategy of my design tries to start with a vision of the building in time and tries to imagine the way it could grow old and act as a ruin. The outcome should respond to the following questions: How will the project react with the immeasurable time? What will remain after the building?

It may be the case that there is no need for the programme and there is a strong chance to see the building abandoned to time. Of course, this may be an idyllic scenario but every building must have its chance to become a ruin and not be erased when is not in needed anymore.

We can imagine a time when the wood fades away under the strength of the natural elements leaving behind the bare concrete structure. The pillars will hold their ground in the face of time while the nature takes over and slowly embraces them.

It can be the case that even the concrete pillars will surrender to time or it is possible that people will start using them as a support for different types of improvised shelters-in a similar way that the first dwellers of the mountains found shelter beneath the stone and trees of the forest. This may write another chapter in the history of the AlpHouse that provides the basic constructive traces for the people to start inhabiting the place once again.

Moreover, we can further imagine the powerful presence of the concrete pillars marking a precise place on earth where two Soul Mates can shelter underneath the structure conquered by wild ivy while facing the sky: a true expression of presence at the threshold between earth, the creative possibilities of men and God.

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fig.242

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8. Conclusion

The aim of this book is to explain a personal methodology of work while answering the research question:

should offer a variety of interpretations that appeal to an embedded collective imagery.

Is it possible to work outside the idea of functional programme and create spaces that have the vocation of being inhabited naturally by being embedded in a specific cultural context ?

Besides considering the design elements that can offer diverse imaginary opportunities for the building and a freedom in the possibilities of interpretation one of the aims of the project was assigning a personal metaphoric meaning to the final design. This is a statement towards architecture as a tool in communicating ideas and a particular view of the world.

I think of a building as a vehicle for message and storytelling.

This question draws from a series of personal interests and fascinations that inform my specific approach to architecture. The thesis project presented here tries to bring them to light in the context of the design studio of Conradin Clavuot and the particularities of the topic of design.

The challenge to design a building representing Alpine Culture in an urban environment brought the idea of representation as constituent part of the design. This allowed for a wide range of interpretations and for a great freedom of formal expression while questioning the expressive power of architecture and its symbolic and metaphoric dimension.

These are ideas that are already part of my research endeavours in the field of architecture and the semester was a great opportunity in further experiencing with them.

In addition, the design was also a pretext to deepen my knowledge into the field of architectural design touching the theme of structure and energy efficiency. During the semester, these topics became important tools in answering the research question.

The resulting project aims to offer a frame for life. The building should act as a constructed infrastructure that provides opportunities for being inhabited. For this, the designed spaces draw from expressions of primitive shelter in order to question their habitability and atmospheric qualities.

These strategies, together with planning a flexible constructive system, try to define the use programme outside a clear functional limitation of space offering possible answers to the research question.

In the same time the design focused on creating a formal expression that

The fascinating fact is that my story got shape in parallel with the design process so it is contained within it creating a strong bound with the formal expression of the resulted design. The architecture of the project using the objective tools from within our professional field is doubled by the secondary logic of the story.

Working within this duality brings meaning to every constructive gesture while giving the project a strong internal logic that helped when making important decisions throughout the process of design.

The project tells the story of an ark that is bringing a new type of Modus Vivendi derived from the traditional Alpine lifestyle to Traunstein. It focusses on the relation with the rhythm of nature, the available resources and the sensuality of hand crafted materials. It is an ark where all the crafts and the rhythm of life in the mountains are “gathered� in order to keep them alive.

The personal outcome of this thesis is strongly related with this metaphor.

The entire research resulted in a synthesis of ideas about Alpine Life and in an introspection into my personal fascinations from the field of architecture. All these brought together are strengthening my knowledge and methodology of work; just like pieces bound together to form an Ark of knowledge that will help me navigate towards the horizons of my profession.

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9. Sources

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9. Sources 9.1. Bibliography

Alessandro, Vassella (2013): Louis I. Kahn. Silence and light: the master’s voice in the lecture for students at the department of architecture of the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich Swiss Feder: Park Book.

Bachelard, Gaston; Jolas, M.; Stilgoe, John R.: The poetics of space. 1994 edition.

Fujimori, Terunobu; Buhrs, Michael; Rössler, Hannes; Buntrock, Dana (2012): Terunobu Fujimori architect. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz.

Handwerkskammer fur Munchen und Oberbayern: AlpHouse Philosophy. Online verfügbar unter http://www.alphouse.eu/AlpHouse-Philosophy.html, zuletzt geprüft am 05.01.2015.

Handwerkskammer fur Munchen und Oberbayern (http://www.alpbc. eu/): Central elements of AlpBC, zuletzt aktualisiert am http://www.alpbc.eu/, zuletzt geprüft am 05.01.2015.

Pallasmaa, Juhani (2011): The embodied image. Imagination and imagery in architecture. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons (AD primers).

Serra, Richard; Giménez, Carmen; Foster, Hal; Weyergraf-Serra, Clara (2005): Richard Serra. The matter of time. Bilbao, [Göttingen?]: Guggenheim; Steidl.

Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, Alberto Pérez Gómez (2006): Questions of perception: phenomenology of architecture. University of California: William Stout.

Traunstein Local Government: “Traunstein Town History”. Town History Timeline. Online verfügbar unter http://www.traunstein.de/SearchEngine/Search.aspx?q=Wahlergebnisse, zuletzt geprüft am 05.01.2015.

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9.2. List of figures

fig.1 Monte Rosa. http://montagnatrakkingvacanze.blogspot. com/2012_09_01_archive.html fig.2 http://www.bauerphotography.de/2012/11/19/die-schlechtwettergarantie-wasserfalle/ fig.3 Collage of sketch Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu and clock image. http:// s65.photobucket.com/user/hozempa/media/blog/cdclockfaces1.png. html fig.4 https://www.mediasinfo.ro/primarii-din-valea-viilor-copsamica-si-micasasa-s-au-intrecut-la-un-concurs-de-cosit-iarba-video/2013/06/16/ fig.5 https://yousef59.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/amintirile.jpg fig.6 http://www.trilulilu.ro/imagini-diverse/la-strans-fan-maramures#ref=viewfile_sidebar_similare fig.7 http://adventuresoftheanonymous.blogspot.com/ fig.8 http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com fig.9 Sketches Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.10 http://www.getmoremassive.com/blog/nurnburg-magic-wood/ images/ fig.11 Sketches Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.12 http://www.ro.tezaur-romanesc.ro/arhitectur259-539259r259neasc259/tipuri-de-case-rneti-tradiionale-i fig.13 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wooden_church_ in_In%C4%83u_%28T%C3%A2rgu_L%C4%83pu%C5%9F%29,_Maramure%C5%9F fig.14 http://farm9.static.flickr.com/8429/7526303822_31ce764565_m. jpg fig.15 Photo Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.16 http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ov7myAyUbJ0/UauKFpQBzQI/ AAAAAAAAEng/_qw9abvfuu0/s1600/DSCF0957-Otro_090827_resize.

JPG fig.17 Blockbau construction Chalet-Stil, St. Peter, Graubünden, Switzerland, 1837. http://www.payer.de/tropenarchitektur/troparch046.htm fig.18 http://viajes.101lugaresincreibles.com/2013/01/65-fotos-que-inspiran-un-viaje-a-suiza/ fig.19 http://baboumaramures.com/de/

fig.20 Unknown. fig.21 http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatterhof/14197167490/ fig.22-23 Photos Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.24 Sketches Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.25 http://www.travel-news-photos-stories.com/2013/03/passing-through.html fig.26 http://www.voellm.ch/schollberg/typo3/fileadmin/user_upload/ Anlagen/Flugaufnahme_17.12.2013/BSA_Flugaufnahme_17.12.2013_9_ web.jpg fig.27 http://blog.strava.com/ciao-italia-8371/ fig.28 https://peterteabonsai.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/ocean-8.jpg fig.29 https://www.flickr.com/photos/45490864@N04/7131369675/ fig.30 Research Studio Conradin Clavuot WS14-15-author Labinot Pacolli fig.31 https://geolocation.ws/v/W/File:19300101%20Grainer%20Traunstein%20Weinleite.jpg/-/en# fig.32 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenheim fig.33 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landkreis_Traunstein fig.34 Energie Atlas Bayern. fig.35-36 Research Studio Conradin Clavuot WS14-15-author Philipp Nigg. fig.37-40 http://www.wetteronline.de fig.41-42 Research Studio Conradin Clavuot WS14-15-author Labinot Pacolli. fig.43-45 Research Studio Conradin Clavuot WS14-15-author Christian Neher. fig.46-67 Data archive Traunstein. fig.68-70 Photos Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.71 https://germanclaire.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/100_1747.jpg fig.72 https://nerdindeutschland.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/dsc04124. jpg fig.73 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maypole#mediaviewer/File:Near_Munich,_the_new_May_Pole.jpg fig.74 http://www.thinkstockphotos.co.uk/image/stock-photo-maypole-gro%C3%9Fheubach-germany/453422663/popup?sq=undefined 151

fig.75 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Zunftwappen.svg fig.76 Sketches Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.77 http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/blogs/compass/Reed-Dancers4.jpg fig.78-101 Photos Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.101-102 Data archive Traunstein. fig.103-104 Sketches Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.105-106 Photos Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.107-108 Data archive Traunstein. fig.109 Sketches Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.110 Image from Rothenburg, Germany. http://www.staedte-fotos. de/1024/rothenburg-ob-tauber-herrengasse-28060.jpg fig.111-113 Data archive Traunstein. fig.114 John Soane, cutaway view of the Bank of England in an imaginary state of ruin, 1830. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Soane#mediaviewer/File:Aerial_cutaway_view_of_Soane%27s_Bank_of_England_ by_JM_Gandy_1830.jpg fig.115 John Soane, ground floor plan of the Bank of England, 1830. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Soane#mediaviewer/File:Ground_ plan_of_the_Bank_of_England.jpg fig.116 John Soane, Imaginary view of the Rotunda and the Four Per Cent Office in ruins, drawing by J. M. Gandy, 1798. http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/ wp-content/uploads/2014/06/53a06520c07a8079c50000fe_interview-sam-jacob-wouter-vanstiphout-curators-of-a-clockwork-jerusalem-at-the-2014-venice-biennale_a_vision_of_sir_john_soan.jpg fig.117 Caspar David Friedrich, The Abbey in the Oakwood (1808–10) 110.4 × 171 cm, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin. http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Caspar_David_Friedrich#mediaviewer/File:Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Abtei_im_Eichwald_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg fig.118 Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Remains of the aqueduct of Nero, 1740–78, etching 49.1 x 70.7 cm, The Baillieu Library Print Collection, the University of Melbourne. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/ programs/booksandartsdaily/piranesiremains-of-the-aqueduct-of-nerojpg/5272004 152

fig.119 Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Remains of the Temple of Neptune’s cells,1778, etching 50x68cm. http://www.wikiart.org/en/giovanni-battista-piranesi/remains-of-columns-making-up-the-side-porches-of-thetemple-in-the-cell-above#supersized-artistPaintings-262028 fig.120 Stone circles of Senegabia, Gambia, Senegal, Date of construction debatable. http://whc.unesco.org/en/activities/28/ fig.121 Cornish Ancient Site, England. https://heritageaction.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/hut-circle.jpg fig.122 Pine cone hut in the Yatsugatake Mountains, Japan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hut#mediaviewer/File:Pine_cone_hut.jpg fig.123 Reconstructed pit house, Tokyo Maibun Archaeological Center, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa. https://heritageofjapan.files.wordpress. com/2008/08/sq-hut.jpg fig.124 Megalithic Dolmen of Iron Age period at Dannanapeta near Amudalavalasa, India. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttarandhra#mediaviewer/File:Megalithic_Dolmen_at_Dannanapeta_03.jpg fig.125 Poulnabrone dolmen in the Burren,County Clare, Ireland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmen#mediaviewer/File:Paulnabrone. jpg fig.126 Banpocun, Shaanxi,China, Neolithic houses reconstruction. http://www.bongkim.com/bongkim/skin/board/b_webzine/print.php?bo_table=b03_01&wr_id=315 fig.127 Sir William Chambers, Primitive Hut- an illustration to “The Origins of Buildings and Orders”, 1759, Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour, 50.0cm x 35.4 cm. http://www.marcantonioarchitects.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Chambers-Primitive-Hut.jpg fig.128 Pupil of John Soane, Perspective of a primitive hut at the origins of DoricTemple. http://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/822/flashcards/131822/jpg/ study_packet_1-c_page_071317057267983.jpg fig.129 Representation of The Heavenly Jerusalem taken from a manuscript of the 11th century, the so-called “Apocalypse of Saint-Sever”. http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/public/articles/The_ Heavenly_Jerusalem_and_the_Paradise_of_Vaikuntha-by_Titus_Burck-

hardt.aspx fig.130 John of Patmos watches the descent of the New Jerusalem from God in a 14th century tapestry, Kimon Berlin – based on original tapestry. https://eastdailyoffice.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/la_nouvelle_jc3a9rusalem.jpg fig.131 Votive painting at the church of Sucevita Monastery, Romania, 1801-the King Ieremia Movila offers God a model symbolizing the constructed church. http://www.crestinortodox.ro/biserici-manastiri/manastirea-sucevita-67947.html fig.132 Sucevita Monastery, Romania, end of the 16th century. http://4. bp.blogspot.com/_KCM_XDFdQaM/TJ3-R9PVqXI/AAAAAAAAFSk/ mzbE33CkpEo/s1600/DSC_0165A.JPG fig.133 Plan of Temple of Zeus, Syracuse, Italy, approx. 6th century. http://fr.academic.ru/pictures/frwiki/83/Siracusa-Olympieion-Plan-bjs. png fig.134 Plan of Tomb, Taj Mahal, Agra, India, circa 1640. http://www. oberlin.edu/images/art234/Mrel.html fig.135 Plan of Trim Castle, County Meath, Ireland, 12th century. http:// socks-studio.com/2012/04/06/walls-as-rooms-british-castles-and-louiskhan/ fig.136 Plan of Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Ţūlūn, Cairo, Egyp, 879 AD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque_of_Ibn_Tulun fig.137 Plan of Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1258. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Cathedral fig.138 Pietro Crescenzi, representation of a royal garden, 13th century. http://hablemosdejardines.blogspot.com/2008/05/pietro-de-crescenzi. html fig.139 Representation of Hortus Conclusus, unknown author. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/398568635744622329/ fig.140 Fra Angelico, The Annunciation - Convent of San Marco, Florence, 1430-32. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortus_conclusus

fig.141 Walking City in New York, Archigram,1964. http://archizoom.epfl.ch/cook fig.142 Giorgio de Chirico, Mystery and Melancholy of a Street, 1914, oil on canvas 87 cm x 71,5 cm, private collection. http://www.bodyofart. com/site_media/user/galleries/lewisnn/exhibition-project/homeboaboa-envsrcboawebsitesite_mediamystery-and-melancholy.jpg fig.143 Giorgio de Chirico, Italian Piazza Metaphysical painting, executed in 1965, signed 1950, oil on canvas, private collection. http://3. bp.blogspot.com/-ByFs0iIINRQ/TjWssOP3r4I/AAAAAAAAA00/ rADSX7qJEXg/s1600/1951-signed-1965-executed-arrival-of-the-movers-girogio-de-chirico.jpg fig.144 Richard Serra, Sea Level, 1988-96, concrete, two walls,each: 10 x 656 x 1’, distance between the walls: 590’, Collection: Cily of Zeewolde,The Netherlands, taken from Serra, Richard; Giménez, Carmen; Foster, Hal; Weyergraf-Serra, Clara (2005): Richard Serra. The matter of time. Bilbao, [Göttingen?]: Guggenheim; Steidl. fig.145 Richard Serra, “East-West/West-East”, Qatar, 2014. http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1025989/qa-richard-serra-on-his-monumental-qatari-desert-sculpture fig.146 Photo Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.147 http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BS7iwYm5bcU/UcDti9Cf4qI/ AAAAAAAAGGc/LdLnCj3QNU4/s1600/2013w24+(4).jpg fig.148 http://gardenplotter.com/rospo/blog/uploaded_images/SawmillStackedLumber-701468.jpg fig.149 http://nickwooster.com/post/42840662430/planks-thisisjustgreat-cedar-mill-seattle fig.150-151 Photos Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.152 http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-49NBlrxt7Og/Tnakb7jZ9CI/ AAAAAAAACxM/z1OT3mkZncs/s1600/DSC01139.jpg fig.153 Photo Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.154 http://yourfreetime.info/category/rust-stain-removal/ fig.155 http://hicarquitectura.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/portada2-640x240.jpg fig.156-157 Photos Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu.

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fig.158 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairn#mediaviewer/File:Cairn_at_ Garvera,_Surselva,_Graubuenden,_Switzerland.jpg fig.159 http://www.awazin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ fa%C3%A7on-6.jpg fig.160 Art work Michael Grabb. http://www.wildcrumbs.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/klonblog-002-michaelgrab.jpg fig.161 Guqin. https://s3.amazonaws.com/classconnection/869/flashcards/2253869/gif/12-6-2010_6309_l_u-14982092F8D3ED8B906.gif fig.162 Qin. http://haishang.blogsport.de/2013/02/10/a-gentleman-never-leaves-his-qin-with-out-a-good-reason/ fig.163 Guqin. http://guqinandtable.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive. html fig.164 Richard Serra, Schunnemunk Fork, Storm King Art Center, USA, http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sFxxPyuI_mU/UofvzVBGZxI/ AAAAAAAAS54/4ZltfCJNBKo/s1600/stormkingserra-4.jpg fig.165 https://aeroscape.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/old-blimp-hangar. jpg fig.166 http://www.titanicbelfast.com/BlankSite/media/images/Titanic%20Stories/Man%20who%20launch%20Titanic/Cedric-nearing-completion-l.jpg fig.167 http://www.freeimageslive.com/galleries/workplace/energy/pics/ power_lines.jpg fig.168 Covered Bridge in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, designed by civil engineer Hans Ulrich Grubenmann, built 1758, destroyed 1799. http:// de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Ulrich_Grubenmann fig.169 Covered Bridge designed by civil engineer Hans Ulrich Grubenmann. http://bambus.rwth-aachen.de/de/referate3/JorgStamm2/referat%20j%F6rg%20stamm%20version2.htm fig.170 Alte Rheinbrücke, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, designed by Ing. Rheinberger,1870/71. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Alte_ Rheinbr%C3%BCcke.jpg/1280px-Alte_Rheinbr%C3%BCcke.jpg fig.171 Alte Rheinbrücke, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, designed by Ing. Rheinberger,1870/71. http://www.frommelt.ag/intelligenter-holzbau/ 154

sanierung-alte-rheinbruecke/mainColumnParagraphs/0/text_files/file2/ bruecke-innen-nach-Sanierung.jpg fig.172 Tężnie-salt health complex, Ciechocinek, Poland, 1824-1828. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Ciechocinek_t%C4%99%C5%BCnia_nr_3_(03).jpg fig.173 Tężnie-salt health complex, Ciechocinek, Poland, 1824-1828. http://ciechocinek.fotopolska.eu/381981,foto.html fig.174 Tężnie-salt health complex, Ciechocinek, Poland, 1824-1828. http://www.panoramio.com/photo_explorer#view=photo&position=32&with_photo_id=44107338&order=date_desc&user=381855 fig.175 Tężnie-salt health complex, Ciechocinek, Poland, 1824-1828. http://ciechocinek.fotopolska.eu/foto/305/305835.jpg fig.176 Steilneset Memorial in Norway, architect Peter Zhumthor, 2007. http://www.helenebinet.com/photography/architects/peter-zumthor. html fig.177 Steilneset Memorial in Norway, architect Peter Zhumthor,2007. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/da/d8/0d/dad80dc26cfe281f8c20929b40501d97.jpg fig.178 Topography of Horror in Berlin, architect Peter Zhumthor, 19932004. http://40.media.tumblr.com/b9a400327ec5793c2f488f1bcb8a46e3/tumblr_mklcegKApg1rs8vpro3_r2_500.jpg fig.179 Sketches Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.180-190 Photographs of study models. fig.191-193 Visualisations of the project. fig.194-197 Photographs of study models. fig.198-199 Sketches Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.200-202 Technical drawings. fig.203-205 Visualisations of the project. fig.206 Engraving with a Rosicrucian System, the symbolic structure of the “Argha,” “Arc” or “Ark of Noah” from the description of Moses, 1593. http://www.sacred-texts.com/sro/rrm/img/pl07.jpg fig.207 Noah’s Ark in Bernard Lamy, De Tabernaculo foederis, 1720, p. 702. https://originsofarchitecture.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/ lamy-de-tabernaculo-foederis-7021.jpg

fig.208-209 Technical drawings. fig.210 Allegorical engraving of the Vitruvian primitive hut, frontispiece of Marc-Antoine Laugier: Essai sur l’architecture 2nd ed. 1755 by Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen (1720-1778). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_hut fig.211 Østerlars Church, Image of the central pillars with medieval frescoes, Bornholm, Denmark, 1160. http://www.wondermondo.com/Countries/E/Denmark/Bornholm/OsterlarsChurch.htm fig.212 Hebrew Tabernacle, according to Calmet’s Dictionary of the Holly Bible with The Biblical Fragments, Charles Taylor, 1728, II, p 496. https://originsofarchitecture.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/calmet-t2-tabernacle-nud-f496-highres.jpeg fig.213 Hebrew Tabernacle, according to Calmet’s Dictionary of the Holly Bible with The Biblical Fragments, Charles Taylor, 1728, II, p 498. https://originsofarchitecture.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/calmet-t2-tabernacle-couvert-f498-highres.jpeg fig.214 Caribbean Hut, Gottfried Semper, published in “The Four elements of Architecture”, 1851. http://quizlet.com/38507022/exam-2flash-cards/ fig.215 Structural scheme of concrete structure. fig.216-218 Visualisations of the project. fig.219 Schemes about the building process. fig.220 Visualisations of the project. fig.221-225 Technical drawings. fig.226-228 Photos Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu. fig.229 Concrete texture. http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/199/8/a/ concrete_texture_by_arkaydo.jpg fig.230 Wood textures. http://www.donboscoayanavaram.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Free-Seamless-Wood-Textures-Patterns-For-3DMapping-2.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Balsa_Wood_ Texture.jpg fig.231 Copper texture. http://users.skynet.be/myline/making_of/magicBullet/Copper2.jpg

fig.232-234 Technical drawings. fig.235-239 Photographs of model. fig.240-242 Visualisations of the project.

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10. Acknowledgment The content of this book is so far incomplete. The final outcome of the thesis is most of all the result of a general atmosphere of love and friendship that gave me strength and peace throughout the process. In the following lines I would like to mention all the people that contributed in way or another to this. I apologize if i forget to mention someone, i am grateful nevertheless.

I thank and offer my love to: My family with special regards to my mother Andorina, Baby, Nana, Raluca, Laurica.

I have all of you in my heart!

My teacher Conradin for giving me his confidence and his support all through the master programme. His personality opened for me a new door in understanding architecture.

Dear Coni, I truly admire your beliefs in the emotional quality of space and your talent in giving your students the courage to be themselves in their endeavours!

My assistant Robert for all our inspiring talks.

Dear Robert, you have my friendship and respect!

My dear Polish friend B(artek) that gave me strength and calm just by ignoring my stupid fears‌

My teacher, friend and collaborator Gisels Gantois for her support.

Dear Gisele, I wish you and your family all the beautiful things!

Hugo Dworzak for his help and encouraging words about my project.

Dear Hugo, i really appreciate your enthusiasm and fascination for architecture and i always look forward for your quotes from Louis Kahn during your presentations!

All my colleagues and people I met during my masters with special regards to: Rafal Nwakielski Karolina Dziengo Giorgi Kurdiani Mirka Sesulkova Sweet May-Lynn Doll Joline Hoedemaekers Sebastian Tripod Bence GrĂłcz Mahdi Derakshan I truly appreciate each one of you.

God bless you all!

B, I hope your success will match your generosity and faith!

My dear Irish friend G(raham) that used his talent to arrange my words into the correct order into this book.

G, your intelligence, polite nature and curiosity inspires me!

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11. Affidavit

I thereby declare under penalty of perjury that the masterthesis with the title AlpArk has been prepared independently by myself and without unpermitted aid. Anything that has been taken verbatim or paraphrased from other writings has been identified as such. This paper has hitherto been neither submitted to an examining body in the same or similar form, nor published.

Vaduz, February 2015 Stancu Laurențiu Tiberiu

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I would like to conclude this book with a special dedication to the person that was my driving force and inspiration during my thesis semestermojej pięknej muzie Martek.

Moja Najukochansza, ten „thesis” był dla mnie jedynie tłem dla Naszych wspólnych chwil, a każda wykreslona przezemnie linia jakby przybliżała mnie do Ciebie.

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