Stadium: Towards A Projective Typology

ARCH 6127 RESEARCH SEMINAR THESIS STATEMENT DRAFT 2.0
STUDENT NAME: HO CHEUK YIU HARDY (UID:2010128769)

Prefix: Stad- (place, city, town)
Suffix: -ium (used to indicate the setting where a given activity is carried out)

The stadium is a paradoxical type that is economically private but socially public. By redefining the passive stadium as an active projective typology, architects empower themselves by creating an urban phenomena.

Hardy Ho, Stadium: Eight Types

WHY?

1. Scribonnius Curio, Amphitheatre
(http://www.the-colosseum.net/images/Michut/Image11.jpg)
2. O.M. Ungers, Berlin: A Green Archipelago
(https://relationalthought.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/385/)
3. Herzog & de Meuron, Stamford Bridge Stadium
(http://afasiaarchzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Herzog-de-Meuron-.-stamford-bridge-redesign-.-london-7-1200×844.jpg)
4. Grafton Architects, University Campus UTEC Lima
(http://payload103.cargocollective.com/1/4/159426/4366323/C_UTEC_Lima_Night_Detail.jpg)

The stadium ‘type’ has often been driven by economic private forces into an icon, though it is also a public venue established on political and social grounds. Building identity is independent of its function as argued by Rossi, through a typological discourse the architect can empower his role through abstration and mapping, which could directly confront the fragmented urban context with autonomy.

The discourse of type as an idea and a model can be traced back to Curio, Durand and Quatremere. The type as a projective instrument through mapping, has been diagnostic in identifying the idea of the city and projecting new grounds for architectural experimentation, according to Vidler. In Ungers’ Berlin Archipelago, Aureli argued typological mapping could reflect the individuality of the urban artifact/archipelago and criticize the infinite nature of urbanization.

Christopher Lee has been looking at the serial operation on political urban types like the city wall, in his teaching and works, where typological reasoning could allow the emergence of ‘deeper and richer structure of typicalities’. In Moussavi’s book the typological changes of stadiums from 1927 to 2012 are traced and analyzed, as a reference.

The stadium, as a projective type, could be redefined upon its coupling of part/whole, tiered levels, place of arriving/gathering, interiority/exteriority, wall/entry, etc.

WHAT?

1. Mandela National Stadium, Uganda (http://www.bendav.nl/gif/ebay12/2693.jpg)
2. Migingo Island, Uganda (http://photocdn.sohu.com/20070213/Img248214537.jpg)

Many African stadiums were built totally by Chinese capital and expertise through the ‘stadium diplomacy’. Originally as a political gesture to secure oil resource benefits, these numerous African stadiums could be typologically transformed to act as social, ecological, and political incubators of communities and diplomacy.
In Lake Victoria, the largest lake for fishing in Africa, has been facing environmental pollution, social & health problems, political identity crisis. Spanning across 3 nations, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, the Lake could incorporate an infrastructure of projective ‘stadium’ types that can architecturally intervene the situation.

The site shall be in close proximity to the urban and ecological context (lake, river) so the forces that drive typological changes can be studied through projective differentiation of the type. The ‘stadium’ shall be of the same size as a typical one, though the typological configuration could allow change in size, form, material.
Programs shall be aimed to resolve new political, social and urban demands, e.g. gathering spaces, learning institutions, recreational facilities, etc. Construction phasing shall be considered to explore new typologies of form and use.

Test cases can be (a) urban-rural edges between Kampala city and squatters’ farmland; (b) urban-nature edges between the city and the agricultural villages along White Nile; and (c) rural-nature edges between fishing villages and Lake Victoria.

HOW?

1. Jamie Lilley, Bartlett Unit 21, 2015 (http://unit-21.com/?p=2807)
2. Atelier Bow Wow, Sectional perspective
(https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/cad-fundamentals-for/9781780672823/08_chapter-title-1.html)
3. Tyler Hopf, superNODE (http://archinect.com/people/project/25766616/supernode/53434841)

Mapping is firstly used to identify the stadium diplomacy impact, then adaptive model prototypes are made to assess the influence of stadium to mediate urban and ecological edge conditions, finally performative effects are applied as a form of mediation.
Step 01 – City Scale 1:500 or 1:1000/Drawing & Model/Mapping (due Dec 17)
Mapping is used to define the typological paradox and identify the urban-rural edge conditions through identifying the social, political, ecological and cultural factors affecting it.
Step 02 – Building Scale 1:100/Drawing & Model/Making (due Review 01)
Secondly, form/program are analyzed through sectional study of incorporating ecological processes like water storage, water hyacinth harvest, agriculture, perch fishing & filleting industry, into the structural and recreational nature of African stadiums.
Step 03 – Building 1:100 & Detail Section 1:50/Drawing & Model/Making (due Review 02)
Thirdly, synthesis through construction phasing adaptive to the context parameters.
Step 04 – Revisions, refinements. Final areas of testing (due Review 03)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Theory: Historical/Contemporary
1. Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City (Oppositions Books), MIT Press, 1984
2. Anthony Vidler, ‘Terres Inconnues: Cartographies of a Landscape to Be Invented’ in October, Vol. 115 (MIT Press, 2006), 13-30
3. Florian Herweck and Sebastien Marot, The City in the City – Berlin: A Green Archipelago, Lars Muller, 2013
4. Pier Vittorio Aureli, ‘Toward the Archipelago’ in Log, No. 11 (Winter 2008), Anyone Corporation, 91-120
Techniques: Technical manuals, collections of recent projects that are similar in method
1. Farshid Moussavi, ‘Watching Sports 1927-2012’ in The Function of Style (ActarD Inc, 2015), 470-519
2. Christopher C.M. Lee & Sam Jacoby, AD Typological Urbanism: Projective Cities, Wiley, 2011
3. Neeraj Bhatia and Mary Casper, The Petropolis of Tomorrow, Actar, 2013
Seminal/Current related projects
1. Herzog & de Meuron, Chelsea FC Stamford Bridge Stadium, July 2015
2. Grafton Architects and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Architecture as New Geography, Venice Architecture Biennale 2012