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ARTIFACT
The thesis is a memento mori of architecture in terms of decay which is the condition of dissipation over time. Instead of seeing decay as a negative surrender to time and nature, the thesis explores positive contribution of decay as a factor of architectural design in relation to time.
Patina, as an expression of age, is important in the perception of time in architecture since it implies decay and aging. The Age Values that patina could map on buildings register the passage of time. Patina layers are physical appealing index to the idea of time and nature, taking aging as necessary and generative.
The thesis offers directions to reorder the relationship between design, construction and decay in realm of architecture and conservation by embracing the indexical aesthetics – patination on buildings- alongside the appreciation of aging. Only by appreciating decay as part of architecture can let the true lifespan and value of architecture be revealed.
WHY
Wake from delusion of architectural permanence and natalist fantasy
The fear of exposing building fabric to decay is the result of architectural delusion of eternity, existing forever like the day it was just completed. However, as architecture also undergoes Cosmo cyclical progression, it is an inevitable fact that architecture, once built, will decay and deform naturally through the passage of time. The proposition is to understand architecture as flow, not form and it is ‘creativity, not merely a creation.’
Architectural permanence was not entertained by Cedric Price in his design of Fun Palace where expendible and transcient qualities of architecture were celebrated. Yona Friedman embraced the freedom to decay of built environment in his project Spatial City. The mutatable form of architecture in time which Bernard Tschumi considered as a state of dispair was also conveyed in his series of Advertisements for Architecture in 1976.
Carlo Scarpa considered the stains as contituent parts of the material fabric in his project Banca Popolare Building in Verona. Delicate designs were intentionally dedicated to the anticipated decay, actively engaged with the transformative possibilities. Layering of materials with respect to time and decay was interplayed in Carlo’s project Castelvecchio Museum. Theorized by Jorge Otero-Pailos, the black soot formed on the facade indicated the conditions that shaped the architecture and provided a dialogue between time and environmental factors.
Negative speculation in Bangkok Museum by R&Sie(n) pushes the boundaries of design by considering decay and wastes as generative contributions to architecture while resisting the stagnant petrification of buildings. The kind of architectural aesthetics generated by the appreciation of aging and expressed by the celebration of patina is evident in the facade design of Caixa Forum in Madrid by Herzog & De Meuron. The patina layer gives a distinctive aesthetics that only time and nature can provide. Innovative material layering is developed to introduce lichen into concrete such that thermal comfort of the building is enhanced in Aeronautical Cultural Centre by Spanish architects BERTA BARRIO|SERGI GODIA.
WHAT
Celebrating the Deteriorated, Decayed, Destruction, Decomposition
The definition of patina in professional fields of architecture and conservation refers to ‘the sum of material and textual changes by aging that occur in the surface zone of all materials, especially in objects of physical cultural heritage.’ There has been debates in discipline of archeology, material culture studies and art history on whether patina is classified as dirt. In this thesis, patina is to be defined as another layer formed resulted from the process of decay, the witness of time which in turn could positively benefit the original mother form.The proposition of the thesis is to turn the negative nature of the unwanted yet anticipated conditions (decay conditions) into positive feedback attributes in architectural design.
The thesis project will reflect the time factor of architecture in terms of decay. Taking the approach to allow the negative aging conditions to be appreciable and offer a new literacy of architectural death in the discipline. These all open to a range of architectural possibilities adressing time marks.
Lifespan of materials and their decaying processes will be mapped. The mapping of material life spans will potentially serve as a catalogue for facade design. This suggests the architectural layering of elements either as protective measures or literate gestures to reveal the age values of architecture. Age values of buildings would not be appreciated if the decaying conditions were not acknowledged as part of the building fabric. Hence, conditions of decay on buildings will be studied to establish possible and sensitive design languages that could adress the noble embracement to aging which is seen as a negative attribute of time on architecture.
HOW
Mapping of material lifespan in relation to its decaying process is to be researched and is taken further to the design parameters. Layering is considered as a major method for design interventions that are to be implemented onto the buildings, not to resist aging and decay, but to address and reveal a ceremony of age values of architecture.
Stage 1 – research of material life spans and decaying process
Stage 2 – develop a catalogue for aging conditions on buildings
Stage 3 – establish sensitive approaches to address decay on buildings
Stage 4 – apply the additional design layer addressing decay onto test case
Stage 5 – make refinement with technical details
BIBLIOGRAPHY
McCarter, Robert, and Juhani Pallasmaa. “Architecture as Experience.” Understanding Architecture: A Primer on Architecture as Experience. Print.
Giedion, S. Space, Time and Architecture; the Growth of a New Tradition. 5th ed. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1967. Print.
Cairns, Stephen, and Jane M. Jacobs. “Introduction: Feeling for the Inert.” Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture. Print.
The Heritage of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Government Printer, 1992. Print
Rossi, Aldo. A Scientific Autobiography. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 1981. Print.
McCarter, Robert. Carlo Scarpa. Repr. ed. London: Phaidon Limited, 2014. Print.
Koolhaas, Rem, and Hans Ulrich Obrist. Project Japan: Metabolism Talks–. Köln: TASCHEN GmbH, 2011. Print.
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