Learning from Contradiction

Learning from Contradiction––

Studio 22 | 913950 | Cynthia Senangsyah

Table of Content–– Prologue

Chosen Site

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Background Architectural Project

City Reflection

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Drawings

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Epilogue

Appendix 1: Capriccio + Folly

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Appendix 2: Diary

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Bibliography

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Prologue The high crime rate in Philadelphia, in the 1950s, is one of the reasons why they went along with the big redevelopment project. Unfortunately today, Philadelphia still is the second city with the highest crime rate among the US cities. The site chosen for this project is taken from a crime map analysis – where it is right outside the city centre, and is where the crime rate starts to rise. The periphery between the chosen site and the current city centre is also where Guild House by Robert Venturi is located, an architecture that challenges the architecture exclusive preferences of the time. Following along with what Guild House stands for, this new city is the area perpendicular to what currently is Philadelphia’s city centre, that acts as a gesture of confrontation to the current city planning, and desires to exploit the possibilities for Philadelphia through its rich culture and history.

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Original Grid of Philadelphia by William Penn

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Architectural Precedent

Guild House by Robert Venturi

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Map of Philadelphia

Current City Centre, Guild House, New City

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New City: Learning from Contradiction

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Learning from Contradiction An exploration of paradoxical ideas in Philadelphia, particularly from the three important figures; Edmund Bacon, Louis Kahn, and Robert Veturi - this project aims to generate a city that confronts the current city centre of Philadelphia, to acknowledge that there is no one right way of planning a city. Instead it tries to exploit the possibilities and potential of Philadelphia’s city planning.

This project started as I was drawn into the tensions in Philadelphia, especially the known friction between Edmund Bacon and Louis Kahn in Philadelphia’s redevelopment project in the 1950s - which at the realisation, Khan’s planning was never acknowledged. Furthermore, as my precedent architect is Venturi, and I noticed that he shared some points that are also contradicting to Bacon and Kahn, specifically in his Learning from Las Vegas, it would be interesting to see how these three architects’ ideas of urbanism would translate into a project in Philadelphia.

Another point in this exploration of conflicts in Philadelphia is the notion of an idealised image vs. the banal reality. This is seen from the tendencies in designing from the three figures mentioned above, however it is also a common tension that has been in Philadelphia even from the 1800s. This is discernible from the works of the well-known artist, William Birch, who made a series of engraving that documents architecture and street-life of Philadelphia in the beginning of the 19th century.

Birch’s Views of Philadelphia as they are named, shows a neat, orderly and clean city, and it was very popular in its time. On the other hand, an artist named John Lewis

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Krimmel, who painted scenes of Philadelphia’s actuality, its messiness, street crowds and violence, could not make a name for himself through his works at that time. People wanted an idealised image, and stowed away the banality and ordinariness of reality.

This idea of idealised image vs banal reality goes-on on a thread even to Bacon, Khan and Venturi in the 1950s onwards. Although Bacon and Kahn had different plans for Philadelphia, they both had a picturesque image in mind. On the flip side, Venturi and Scott Brown in their study of Las Vegas’ Strip, see banality and ordinariness as a quality to learn from and a point to be celebrated.

In this Project, an exploration of Kahn’s pedestrian boulevard and Bacon’s determination to keep the grid for vehicles, but have a meandering path for pedestrians are mainly explored. However they both shared the same intention of a picturesque walkway for pedestrians. Contrastingly, Venturi encourages architects to see ordinary things around and these facts are translated into pedestrian arcades that keep the perpendicular streets for vehicular access. The arcade itself acts to frame its surrounding context of the ordinary Philadelphia, with its messiness, weathering material, electrical wires hanging off the streets, and many others - which would not be considered picturesque by Bacon and Kahn.

“All problems can never be solved… architects are highly selective in determining which problems they want to solve…” - Paul Rudolph

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Panel Arrangement

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Fragments

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Epilogue––

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Appendix 1: Capriccio + Folly

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Beauty in the Mundane?

Aldo Rossi ––

Fake Capriccio of Teatro del Mondo

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City for All. Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown ––

Capriccio the Rialto Bridge and the St Giorgio Maggiore

by Canaletto

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TO BE. “I am a woman with balls”

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RETROSPECT “I did not notice, the history was being made”

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DETACHED “to live outside, detached... detached.”

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Appendix 2: Diary

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Crime Map of Philadelphia

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First Iteration

Habitable walls surround the area where crime is dominant, with the wall being the background image of the city. Interior is banal, dark and messy, exterior being the picturesque image people want.

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Second Iteration

Meandering Pedestrian walk way, follows the grid, connexts to fast food chains across North Philadelphia East.

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Third Iteration

Intervention to the buildings on the line that faces the current city centre.

Network of pedestrian bridge , connects to a megaform that parasitic to historical buildings across the site.

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Fourth Iteration

Pedestrian arcade perpendicular to vehicular streets from the current city centre. Repitition of stripes act as a fortress to the new city.

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Sketches

Columns from folly 1 rearranged.

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Notes

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Bibliography Bacon, E., 1662. Form, Design and the City (1962) | Philadelphia Urban Planning. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVK7MUV9CV8&ab_ channel=reelblack>.

Benjamin, W. and Tiedemann, R., 1999. The arcades project. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press.

Di Palma, V., Periton, D. and Lathouri, M., 2009. Intimate metropolis. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

ArcGIS StoryMaps. 2021. Louis Kahn vs. Edmund Bacon, Planning for Communities. [online] Available at: <https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ c0452d09922e4445a6afb21455c1409a> [Accessed 6 June 2021].

Janson, A., 2014. Fundamental Concepts of Architecture: The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations. Birkhauser Verlag AG. Kahn, L., Latour, A., 1991. Louis I. Kahn : writings, lectures, interviews. New York : Rizzoli International Publications Nash., 2011. First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Reed, P. S. Toward form: Louis I. Kahn’s urban designs for Philadelphia, 1939-1962.

University of Pennsylvania Press.

Venturi, R., Izenour, S. and Scott Brown, D., 2006. Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Venturi, R., 1966. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. The Museum of Modern Art, New York; 2nd edition.

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