The Veiled Suptopia : Underground Healing Centre

THE VEILED SUBTOPIA THE UNDERGROUND HEALING CENTRE FOR URBAN NOMADS

/ Marcus Ma TK The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) MArch 1 (SPRING, 2020) 1

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BUILDING DIS. APPEARANCE

Use. Misuse. Abuse.

Marcus Ma

Instructor: Patrick Hwang

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Frederick Kiesler RUR Set Design (Berlin, 1923)

Prologue . Play 0 Exquisite Corpse . Play 1 Narratives . Play 2 2.1 THE FILM 2.2 THE MAP

Architecture . Play 3 3.1 PLANS 3.2 SECTIONS 3.3 AXONOMETRICS 3.4 RENDERINGS

Epilogue 5

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Sometimes, rather than reaching for the sky, some believe we have to go deep into the ground for the authenticity.

The idea of underground is inspired from the concept of Subtopia in the Atlas by Dungkaicheung and Argia in the invisible cities by Italo Calvino. They both suggested an imagination of an underground space that embodied the trace of memory and authenticity that could not be found anymore on the upper ground level.

ARGIA “What makes Argia different from other cities is that it has earth instead of air. The streets are completely filled with dirt, clay packs the rooms to the ceiling, on every stair another stairway is set in negative, over the roofs of the houses hang layers of rocky terrain like skies with clouds.

We do not know if the inhabitants can move about the city, widening the worm tunnels and the crevices where roots twist: the dampness destroys people’s bodies and they have scant strength; everyone is better off remaining still, prone; anyway, it is dark. From up here, nothing of Argia can be seen; some say, “It’s down below there,” and we can only believe them. The place is deserted. At night, putting your ear to the ground, you can sometimes hear a door slam.”

SUBTOPIA The Subtopia is a unrooted place which was untraceable from the book of history. An archive of memorable memories and imagination. Both devine and despotic are transformed into stacks of semeotic meanings under the subterrainean surface. Beneath the complex and dynamic geometry of the city, the untold percipitate of time and space was forgotten.

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Whisper, whisper, becoming the murmur of the mythical ground.

Im The Invisible City of Argia, Italo Calvino

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The Veiled Subtopia : A Downtown Secrete Club for the Marginalized Societies on Hyperdensed Kownloon Penisula 8

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Reconstructing Le Fresnoy: The Screenplay Exercise 750*1000 mm Materials: paper, graphite From Tourcoing (centre), Movement I & IV This is a dialectical interplay between sections, drawings, elevations and plans. Section of the three main halls under the realm of great roof is transited to the unfolding roof plan with the staggered vector elements from one place to another. An interplay between old and new, public and private, interior and exterior, reality and imagination. The drawing is an imaginative synthesis of different materials such as movement analysis of Manhattan Transcripts, the screenplay exercise of Bernard Tachumi, the original concept drawing of Le Fresnoy and my personal of improvisation along the drawing process. The improvised elements such as vectors and activities is a key role in the screenplay drawing exercise. As the graphite pencil roaming in the “building”, programmes and moments were created in-between the “in-betweens”.

To Madrid (left), Movement III The ramp from the roof to the underground is an unprecedented element in the original design that brings you from the industrial town in Northern France to the capital of Spain. The walkways were further extended horizontally and allows people to have an actual visual connection with the old Spanish palace along the extruded platforms along the glazing façade.

To Berlin (right), Movement II The roof structure of the second triangular hall is covering the west wing of Reichstag which is to emphasize consonance with the enormous glass dome. The roof retained its steel structure but replaced the tiles with glass. The walkways and infrastructures were extensively unfolded rightward to the rooftop of Reichstag to strengthen the continuity of circulation.

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Collage of Le Fresnoy Art Centre, Bernard Tschumi, 1992

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Schematic Diagram from Bernard Tschumi, 1992

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Moments of vector movement, Le Fresnoy, 2020

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Exquisite Corpse: Le Fresnoy Art Centre

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Exquisite Corpse: Le Fresnoy Art Centre

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2.1

VEILED (SUB)TOPIA : The Cinematic Narratives of (extra)Ordinary Kownloon Penisula, the vivid montage of Sham Shui Po District When One is Veiled, Another is Unveiled.

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'The Veil of Urban Reconstruction' - the healing process of urban development

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THE SCREENPLAY EXERCISE // CINEMATIC MONTAGE OF THE VEILED SHAM SHUI PO

Prologue

Scene 1

An 80 seconds filmnography of series of cinematic montages with different architectural elements and images of the city as a conceptual introduction of the idea of ‘veil’ and ‘subtopia’.

Title: ‘Ubtopia’ of Veils The overlayed veil of void of Roman Pantheon on the footage of the view on Pacific Ocean from the Victoria Island.

Scene 4 Title: Reconnecting the Divided

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Scene 5 Title: ‘Ubtopia’ of Veils The overlayed veil of void of Roman Pantheon on the footage of the view on Pacific Ocean from the Victoria Island.

Scene 2

Scene 3

Title: The Promising Veil The veiled view looking from the construction site of the highrise apartment tower in the decaying aged district.

Title: The Divided Grounds The overlayed orthogonal urban grid of Sham Shui Po implying the box-to-box planning is intensifying the immobility and solidification of the urban experience.

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Scene 7

Title: The Promising Veil The veiled view looking from the construction site of the highrise apartment tower in the decaying aged district.

Title: The Divided Grounds The overlayed orthogonal urban grid of Sham Shui Po implying the box-to-box planning is intensifying the immobility and solidification of the urban experience.

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Scene 8

Scene 9

Title: ‘Reflection’ The mirrored (reflective) facade of skyscrapers and the reflection on the image of the city, a veil either visibility and / or invisibility.

Title: Reflection on Reality To us, to the nomads, what is reality?

Suggesting the contemplation on the authenticity of the alienated life in the wheel of merchandization in Capitalism.

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Scene 13

Title: The (broken) Windows Array of arched windows, people escaping from. The reality is engulfed by the mist of demolishment.

Title: For the Repairments Demolishing the reality for the sake of the repairment of the future. Break a window for the repairment.

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Scene 10

Scene 11

Title: Interplay between Veiled and Unveiled Seeing and being seen. An interplay between what is veiled and what is being unveiled by the screens of the city. What can be seen?

Title: The Unveiled When the veil is removed, what is the legacy, what is the heritage of the veil?

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Title: The Foundation of Our (Extra)Ordinary Life The filmnography of mirrored urban images is veiled by the orthogonal grid-like structure, as if the fences, the glazing facade, or the urban grid.

Title: Subtopia of Veil What can be seen (or unveiled) when one is being veiled by the earth of subtopia? the healing centre is a place for people to take away the mask, and to understand their inner self, it is a journey, a quest to authenticity. We are living on an island of veils that everything is masked.

The project is creating a subtopia, a new ground, a mind palace for the forgotten societies.

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2.2

MAPPING THE CONTEXT: Mapping of the ground and the context Mapping of the heritage and ornamentations The location of the project is situated at Yeekuk Street in Shamshuipo. Shamshuipo is known as one of the most underprivileged communities in Kowloon Peninsula.

The issue of ethnical minority, drug problem, poverty issue, aging population was happening in this great melting pot. From the site mapping, the site is located at the southern area, in the surroundings, there are many occupied public area that filled with marginalized people, they stray in the alleyway, wander in the park, living in a small or even caged flat, they are isolated by the society and yet most of the time they are isolating themselves from the society. These people are known as: the urban nomads. Therefore, the goal is to provide a great space for the nomads community by creating a subterranean semi-public area with the function of healthcaring service, mental healing and social counseling.

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Context : Eclectic Perspectival Diagram of the Veiled Garden

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MAPPING THE CONTEXT // SITE ANALYSIS

CHINESE PUBLIC DISPENSARY

KWAN TAI TEMPLE URBAN NOMADS THE MARGINALIZED GROUP

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SHAM SHUI PO 137 YEE KOK (HOSPITAL) STREET

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THE PLACEBOS physical healing

psychological healing

Maggie Centre

Oldham, dRMM

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Gartnavel, OMA

THE CONTINUATION OF HISTORIAL USE:

ORIGINAL USE: PUBLIC DISPENSARY (1933) ↓ TEMPORARY USE: PUBLIC COMMUNAL CENTRE (1950) ↓ CURRENT PROGRAMME: PUBLIC METHADONE CLINIC (2002) ↓ FURTURE PROPOSAL: MENTAL HEALTH CENTRE

To carry on its healing mission, the clinic would be transformed into a mental health centre in referencing the Maggie’s Centre founded by Charles Jencks in 1995 who believed in the Architectural Placebo Effect which the aesthetic value of architecture could actually help soothing people’s sorrows and pains. On top of that, the ornamental elements with all the art deco features will be preserved for the aesthetic appeals.

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The dispensary is a two-storey building and is a remarkably good example of Art Deco style architecture which is very rare in Hong Kong. The front faรงade facing Yee Kuk Street is strongly symmetrical and projects over the pavement on columns to form a covered walkway or arcade. The open verandahs at first floor level are protected by metal security grilles. The faรงade exhibits strong unity and verticality in the use of giant stylised grooved columns flanked by tall narrow flattened archways. Stylised mouldings are used as decorations and the end elevations of the first floor verandah are particularly interesting featuring scroll brackets, ornamental ironwork and other bizarre Architectural features possibly derived from Greek, Egyptian or Chinese architecture. The parapet has a low stepped profile. The other elevations are much plainer in comparison but the use of stylised mouldings is continued on window heads and cills.

the frames

the decos 30

the ornamented skin

Contextual Elevation: Secret Dispensary for Urban Nomads

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Aerial View

Site Map

THE KWAN-TAI TEMPLE (1891)

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THE CLINIC (1933)

Figure and Ground

The project consists of two heritage buildings, at the front, Chinese Public Dispensary built in 1933, and at the back, Kwan-Tai Temple built in 1891. Behind the clinic there is a Chinese temple situated diagonally. The interlocking coordination creates a different geometrical relationship with the orthogonal surroundings which are basically composed by blocks of traditional tenement houses.

We can see the healing feature of the context could be traced over a century of history, either physical or mental.

Photography: The Contextual Footages

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THE URBAN PLACEBO: A Healing Power of Architecture Completing a man with physical and psychological curement In this healing centre, spaces are free planned and less determined, the counselor, the therapists and social workers, will be scattered across the centre, there are no constraints or designated areas for counseling because everywhere is possible for everything. Whenever one is feeling free to talk, the counselor will unveil themselves and approach for help, otherwise, one may also stay solitude to appreciate the beauty of shadow and light, the breeze coming from the voids, the shades of tree, the reflection of water and the feeling of being inclusive by the place, as if the perception on this subtopia, this underground, is their second home, a home away from home. Building a new ground beneath the old one, the veiled subtopia is not only a factory of healing, but an urban placebo, a place for people to sooth and talk, and re-discovering themselves through the process of meditation, counciling, reconnecting themselves with the place, time and architecture. A place dedicated and belongs to them.

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Sketch: Voids and Circulation

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // FRONT ENTRANCE

Sketch: Addressing Entrance Focal Point

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THE CURIOUS EXPLORERS

THE EXNTERNAL VIEW SHOWING THE EXPLORER BEING ATTRACTED BY THE URABN BUFFER EMPHASIZED BY THE DARK-GRANITE LINTEL, PEEKING INTO THE SPHERICAL VOID TO SEE THE ACTIVITIES UNDER THE VEIL OF THE EARTH.

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // OVERVIEW

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THE ARCADIAN GARDEN

THE ARCADIAN GARDEN IS COMPOSITED BY SEQUENCE OF LAYERS: FIRST THE LAYER OF FOREST, THEN THE LAYER OF EARTH, AND FINALLY LAYERS OF SPHERICAL GARDENS.

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // GROUNDS ON THE GROUND

UTOPIA: THE OLD GROUNDS GROUND FLOOR PLAN LEGENDS

Sketch: Grid and Geometry 40

| 1.RAMP TO SUBTOPIA | 2.WAITING AREA | 3.INDIVIDUAL CHAMBERS | 4.VERTICAL GARDEN | 5.TEMPLE OF GOD OF MARTIAL | 6.THE ARCADIAN GARDEN

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // GROUNDS BENEATH THE GROUND

SUBTOPIA: THE NEW GROUNDS UNDERGROUND FLOOR PLAN LEGENDS

the Veiled Lady; Raffaelle Monti (1873) 42

| 7. OPEN AIR GARDEN | 8. INDOOR VERTIAL GARDEN | 9. SAND (ZEN) GARDEN | 10. MINGLING AREAS | 11. HILLSIDE GARDEN | 12. WATER GARDEN

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INTO THE VEIL SECTIONAL

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L OF THE EARTH PERSPECTIVE

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ROAMING INSIDE THE C

SECTIONAL P

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CONNECTED GROUNDS

PERSPECTIVE

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // REALIZATION: THE LOOP

TO LOOK UP, TO LOOK INTO A GAZE: TO LOOK AT THE STAGED SCENARY COMPOSED BY SERIES OF NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL ELEMENTS (AS A STATE OF WORK OF ART). THE TRANSITIONAL SEQUENCE BETWEEN THE VEILED AND UNVEILED ELEMENTS BECOMES THE LEADING THREAD OF THE JOURNEY. 48

Perspective: The Loop

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // ENLARGED SECTION: RAMP

Like Corbusier said, stairs divide but ramp connects, the journey begins with the ramp, around an open air garden, veiled by a layer of polycarbonate panels. The landing of the ramp is an intruder towards the void, allowing people to experience the garden in multiple levels, at the bottom, or elevated, or in the middle of the void like a private balcony. From the enlarged section we could see the relatively tall railing that limited the visitor’s vision into a narrow and linear continual light shaft guiding them in the darkness. The polycarbonate panels framed the garden with the void, to create a monolithic experience, that is simple but strong.

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // REALIZATION: GREEN LADDER

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Perspective: Green Ladder

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // ENLARGED SECTION: VERTICAL GARDEN

After that, the ramp will bring you further downward, one will be feeling the texture of the grassland when you arrive at the void of vertical greenery wall, a monumental wall of parasitical natures. At this area, one could lay down and immerse themselves into the ankle tall grassland, enjoying the greens, the garden helps connecting the internal space vertically that every user of the counseling chamber could comprehend with greenery and natural daylight.

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // REALIZATION: ZEN GARDEN

A MOMENT OF SIMPLICITY THE UNDETERMINED SPACE IS DETERMINED BY THE STATE OF MIND OF THE USERS, WHENEVER THEY FEEL FREE TO PERFROM ANY FORM OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES, NOT TO ISOLATE, BUT SUGGESTING AN OPTIMAL CONDITION TO ENGAGE, TO INTERACT, TO CONCIL, AND TO CREATE. 56

Perspective: Zen Garden

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // REALIZATION: WATER GARDEN

Through the channel, one will step into the spherical chamber of zen garden which connects to the temple to enjoy a moment of simplicity, sand and stone and the smell from the temple above.

At the end of the subtopia, people will take a seat at the sunken water garden, with light and water, and a small table for counseling. Age, gender, and ethnic are blurring. Visitors are coming for the same purpose, sharing similar struggles, sorrows and pain. A calm and inclusive space allows that to unveil themselves, to free themselves from the mask.

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Perspective: Water Garden

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THE VEILED SUBTOPIA // DESIGN PROPOSAL // THE URBAN PLACEBO

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Axonometric: Unveiling the Veiled

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