We shape the clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
Lao-Tzu
Structure is the giver of light.
-Louis Kahn
These two quotes guided our process. First, we focused on the forming the space inside, rather than making the “clay pot.” We continually returned to the question of how light would be affected by a modification in the design, and rejected any techniques or forms which interfered with our notions of how light may be sculpted within the space.
FABRIC: FLUID + EPHEMERAL
When we began to contemplate the notion of a meditation space constructed not of stone, wood, or glass, but of FABRIC, we realized how appropriate a material it is. Fabric can be ephemeral, translucent, soft, it suggests impermanence, it is delicate, it transmits light. And it is fluid. Fabric takes the form it is given, moving in the wind, moving with the body, changing qualities when stretched or relaxed.
So we started with these notions of impermanence and ephemerality, which are subjects for meditative contemplation in themselves. But the idea of impermanence or ephemerality as a springboard for an architectural proposal is especially potent.
FORM: FLUID + EPHEMERAL
We sought to create a space that is AS ephemeral as the fabric from which it is constructed. We are charged with creating the conditions for contemplation, stillness, silence, and reflection. To allow the world of objects and material to dissolve and recede in a space free from ordinary frames of reference.
MATERIAL
By the layering of diaphanous, opaque, and translucent fabrics, we will blur the edges of the space inside – dematerializing the surface through our use of material. One may become more attuned to the subtle senses and become more seated in the mind. The space suspends a sense of place, and allows detachment from the exterior environment.
A SPACE FOR MEDITATION AND CONTEMPLATION
It is welcoming, yet private. It acts as an opening, or break, from its surroundings. We have favored the sculpting of Space and Light over Form, Ethereality over Legibility, Contemplation over Action, Mystery over Clarity.
Meditation may be a formal act with prescribed practices – examples are numerous and varied, and span every religious practice. But a space with these qualities may respond to many needs: for comfort, escape, wonder, tranquility, connection, rest, or refuge.
We have created a public space about a very personal experience. You may find yourself in this space alone, or perhaps you might find others there – people sitting, looking, resting, walking, or meditating. Maybe you discover it with a few friends and you choose to linger there together, each transformed in a singular way by the encounter.
(section through proposed space)
PRECEDENT STUDIES
In developing the form and plan that would lend themselves to these ideas, we started by looking at sacred buildings as historical precedents. We focused in on aspects of APPROACH, THRESHOLD, CIRCUMAMBULATION, STRUCTURE, RITUALS OF MAKING, and effects of ILLUMINATION. We identified qualities of each that would lend themselves to our small, fabric meditation space.
Oblique Entry: We were interested in creating an indirect entry, being able to slip in between layers.
The Infinite Threshold: This is a shinto sacred space composed of a series of gates. We extracted the idea of the infinite threshold from this image.
Radial Access: Radial examples are numerous, and especially evident in ancient stone circles such as Stonehenge and Avebury. At the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo, paths converge on the central ablution fountain. Radial paths establish a strong sense of center and destination, and of place.
Circumambulation: The circumambulating path suggests unity because of how the path and place simultaneously create each other. The sacred place and the path to it form an integral whole.
PLAN
Our plan sketches began to integrate some of the ideas from our precedent studies, along with notions of LAYERING and NESTING. We had an idea that the ribs might be continuous from one side to the other, while enclosing multiple spaces. And we began to think about how to lift up the skin from the ground level as a reveal and allow reflected light.
This is the plan as it is now. We realize that although this place invites stillness, we experience space dynamically. One enters obliquely into the meditation space by slipping in between the outer layers. One side’s entry is quite narrow (in plan) but the space is high and wall billows outward. On the other side, the entry is wider in plan but the curve of the outer wall passes overhead much lower, nearly kissing the curved wall below it.
We have prolonged the experience of entering by creating an ongoing repeating threshold, similar to the idea in the shinto gates we showed earlier.
The central space is formed by the threshold-paths that surround it, creating a path of circumambulation. Like the circumambulating paths of the Buddhist temple of Borobodur, zones of darkness and constriction give way to the light and openness. It is a journey from “the world of appearances to the sea of immortality”.
The two entries and two paths which wrap and lead to the central space in order to reinforce the center as the focal point and destination of the path. A single linear entrance would have had the effect of creating a front and back, and imply a hierarchy within the place of arrival, which we wanted to avoid.
We used the radial plan within the meditation space – the fabric skin begins to lift up to reveal the center and offering a direct way of entering the central space. Also, hanging fabric panels are all directed toward the center, emphasizing it as a space of arrival. We established the central meditation as a focus by the use of light, rotation, contraction of space, and the increasing “groundedness” of the free-hanging fabric panels which radiate from the walls.
DEPLOYABILITY + CONSTRUCTION
These diagrams show how the structure is composed of a series of nesting identical sections, progressively smaller toward the center. The components may be flat-packed, and are deployed on two ground rails. Since each arch is identical except for its size, each meets the rail as the same vertical angle (45 and 114 degrees).
SITE
The site may be anywhere the climate may bear, but it lends itself to a temporary space – a park, a campus, in between more permanent structures, alone and unexpected in the landscape, or in a museum.
Filed under: phase 2: design, uncategorized
carla
dandersonvm
k8m
Michael
Textile Tabernacle 