memorial for the 9/11 victims

A International design competition was held in 2003 for selecting the design for a national memorial to remember and honor the people killed in terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. Design submissions totaled 5,201 and were received from 63 nations.

This memorial proposes a space that resonates with the feelings of loss and absence that were generated by the destruction of the World Trade Center and the taking of thousands of lives on September 11, 2001. It is located in a field of trees that is interrupted by two large voids containing recessed pools. The pools are set within the footprints of the Twin Towers. A cascade of water that describes the perimeter of each square feeds the pools with a continuous stream. They are large voids, open and visible reminders of the absence.

"Reflecting Absence" has made the voids left by the destruction the primary symbols of the loss. By allowing absence to speak for itself, the designers have made the power of these empty footprints the memorial. At its core, this memorial is anchored deeply in the actual events it commemorates-connecting us to the towers' destruction, and more important, to all the lives lost on that day.

While the footprints remain empty, however, the surrounding plaza's design has evolved to include beautiful groves of trees, traditional affirmations of life and rebirth. These trees, like memory itself, demand the care and nurturing of those who visit and tend them. They remember life with living forms, and serve as living representations of the destruction and renewal of life in their own annual cycles. The result is a memorial that expresses both the incalculable loss of life and its consoling regeneration.

The surface of the memorial plaza is punctuated by the linear rhythms of rows of deciduous trees, forming informal clusters, clearings and groves. This surface consists of a composition of stone pavers, plantings and low ground cover. Through its annual cycle of rebirth, the living park extends and deepens the experience of the memorial.

Surrounding the pools on bronze parapets are the names. The enormity of this space and the multitude of names underscore the vast scope of the destruction. Standing there at the water's edge, looking at a pool of water that is flowing away into an abyss, a visitor to the site can sense that what is beyond this parapet edge is inaccessible.

The memorial plaza is designed to be a mediating space; it belongs both to the city and to the memorial. Located at street level to allow for its integration into the fabric of the city, the plaza encourages the use of this space by New Yorkers on a daily basis. The memorial grounds will not be isolated from the rest of the city; they will be a living part of it.

The true understanding of the concept of the breif 'reflective absence' and representation interms of design was something that inspired me a lot in this design.

memorial architecture

After studying minimlistic style of architecture & examples of it i came across the buildings designed as memorials which evoked my intrest.these were buildings designed in the memory of a important person of the nation or to signify the importance of event in history as a taken place at the location.

First i tried to understand the difference between a monument and a memorial.A memorial serves to remind about the person/event and to glorify the past from the perspective of the present, while a monument is a magnificent building with history. A memorial has pre-concieved thought whereas a monument outperforms the timecapsule. A memorial has a proposal, a monument is disposed. Architectural expression in both get reflected, in the memorial by virtue of the proposal, whereas in a monument by virtue of history.

how memorials compare with tombs or cemetaries makes me consider the Egyptian pyramids, which must be both monuments and tombs. Generally, I believe visitors to cemetaries go to commune in some way with deceased loved ones. Visitors to memorials go for a sense of historical, cultural reflection.

it evoked a lot of questions in my mind as to what would the requirements be? what would the structure look like and also what would be the pararmeters under which such buildings are designed.
i started looking through many memorial buildings designed by architects over time To understand this better.

Amongst the many buildings i found.most of them were for national heroes, a lot of them designed honouring the various war victims Or victims of natural clamities and also in the recent past terrorist attack victims and sites, and also some memorials designed for some tragic incidents that happened in the history. mainly the jewish holaucast in the europe. the holocaust has inspired people all over the world to look back at the tragic incident and learn from it. there are many memorials designed on the same topic worldwide.

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein museum

Studying Minimal architecture and having a special intrest in museums i came across this project which look like a 'black box' just placed in a space.the facade treatement with a hand carved surface which is plain but has the effect of a sculpture or stone in nature which transforms with different weather and time gives a sense of timelessness to the building and also allows it to transform the way it looks with time.the idea seemed really minimal in thought with great effects in the future.

Heinrich Degelo, Meinrad Morger and Christian Kerez have created a museum of great structural complexity and discreet simplicity. The closed form is a 'black box' of tinted concrete and black basalt stone. River pebbles embedded in the building's exterior provide a subtle coloration, forming a link to the landscape of the Rhine Valley.

The hand-carved surface of the façade invites touching, and reflects the surroundings. Long rows of windows open the black cube to both inside and outside. Inside the Black Box is a perfect White Cube. The building is clearly structured with maximum space devoted to art. The visible exterior of the building corresponds almost exactly to the public exhibition spaces. There are six exhibition rooms arranged around two diametrically opposed staircases. The ground plan, reminiscent of a windmill's sails, enables diagonal views through the whole building (text from website museum).

Museum of literature by tadao ando

Tadao ando and his architecture always comes to my mind when i think of minimal architecture and his usage of natural elements such as air, light, water and landscape in a special way in his projects always fascinates me.In the case of this building for instance- The museum of literature at himiji in japan. he uses water glass and concrete as a primary binding element in the building and also to potray the connection between the new and the old is inspiring.A shallow pool of water on the exterior perimeter of the Annex building intersects with the glass and concrete volumes, extending the facade vertically onto the reflective surface of the water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytfui7VhiKE

A horizontal window placed at floor and water level of the concrete wall that wraps to enclose a double-height lounge area allows for a continual relation between exterior and interior and a constant play of surfaces between the reflection of the glass and the reflection of the water.The water feature for the Museum of Literature forms the approach to the entry and is quite extensive. The curved wall with the tall windows is very graceful and gives a most appropriate tranquillity to the building.

the building started as a annex which was a library. the main building is made of 2 equal cubes which overlap at a 30 degree angle but one of the cubes is wrapped by a cylinder which has a 20 mtr radius. this usage of intresting geometry bring out the special features of the surrounding

the circulation paths created,integation of the natural climate and surroundings into the building and the incorporation of water and landscape inspired from the surroundings attracted me the most to the building.The architects respect to the site and the history which was that the site had a castle before to which the new building connects now and also some of the elements of the building have historical significance as he did not destroy them put integrated them into his building design in really intresting

Ned Kahn Science center in Switzerland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWIhkvgg6MQ


The Ned Kahn Science center in Switzerland. I think that this building is truly inspirational. after studying the aplix factory design the facde treatement was something that caught my intrest and i came across this building. When I first saw the video I thought that what was being displayed on the facade of the building, a video installation of water ripples being projected on a massive scale across the building. In fact, the front of the building is covered in thousands of aluminum pads that move in the air currents and can show you the turbulence of the wind in detail. The overall look is breathtaking, it looks like metal water blowing in the wind or the body of a fish moving its muscles in and out. I was unaware until today that these techniques even existed as in the case of the blur project where the fog is used as building facade. The metal pads must be mounted on hinges or on pins so that that they can rotate in accordance with the changes in wind speed. It has given me lots to think about in terms of a way to be truly innovative and inspiring like this.  there is no real wind inside a building but there is lots of light to play with and there are drafts if I really wanted to go down the route of harnessing wind power. The key lesson from this is think outside the box, have a great concept and follow it through and you will have a thing of beauty in the end.The way technology can be used to create isslusions in buildings was something thatinspired me a lot. This was a really inspiring piece for me.

herzog and de meroun and minimalism

Studying the work of herzog and de meuron who do all kind of work from minimalistic style to complete deconstruction in architecture i found them to be very inspiring as they build accoding to the context and also the need of the user and the project irrespective of the for of style they adapt in the process of designing.

As i am intrested in minimalistic style of architecture i was reseaching the best minimalistic design done by the firm. the Tate modern was a great example of such a building and how they have left room for the future design which they have proposed now which is totally different from minimalistic style and yet fits perfectly to their previous minimal design style they adopted in the 1st step.

The goetz collection, gallery for private collection of modern art, munich which a great example for minimalist architecture caught my eye. the building stands like a monumental minimal art sculpture in a small garden had the concept of 'floating structure over structure buried in earth' a simple concept which with a basic geometric form and the great choice of materials: bitch plywood panels,aluminium and opaque glass, as well as the serial arrangement of the panels recall the design principles and the 'look' of minimal art.

Even though the building has a simple concept it is hard to figure out the composition of the building
from the outside as its surfaces give a enigmatic quality.the interior space has no obvious relation with the exterior and the placement of the high windows makes one wonder which storey they are in. the staircase forms a important yeat contrasting element compared to the calm exhibition spaces.
the whole structure makes me think that the architects were not concerned with simplification but in creating something highly complex out of what appears ordinary.

transformation in a building with time

The tate modern project which was a project taken up by the herzog nad de meuron architects in the year 1995 when it was a gigantic poewr staion designed by giles gilbert scott. The emptied turbine hall was a peice of the 'post industrial' architecture of the 1960's which was constructed for industrial purpose with a lot of metal,prefabricated materials. the design of the tate modern was minimalistic in style and was clearly visible when the machinery was removed from the large hall and essentially did nothing much other than clearing out the space. they left the brick facade largely intact, only the striking striking light beam which was placed on top of the building marked its transformation and underlines the horizontal extent of the complex.

they primarily concentrated on the interior, increasing the height of the empty hall by lowering the floor and leading the visitors into the building over a spectacular ramp.similar to the way minimalist sculptures articulated the spatial quality of a vanished industrial production evoking the memories of the old power station.visitors can look through narrow bay windows into the depths of the empty hall and therby experience the fascnation of the indusrtial ear.the primary concern was to transform it into a theatre of life that relates to here and now and is a part of the flow of time.

today in 2012 the same architects have given a new proposal to increase the floor area and add a new structure to the modified building due to the damand in space. a building which started as post modern factory then transformed using minimalistic architecture style is now transforming into a modern deconstructive style as seen in the new design showing all the three eras distinctively in the design. the fact that the architects had remodelled accoding to the need of the time and left room for transformation over time is something that i find really inspiring and a thought that i would really keep in mind when i design a building.
http://www.dailyicon.net/2008/07/transforming-tate-modern-by-herzog-de-meuron/

                                          NEW PROJECT DESIGN PROPOSAL

Between presence and disappearance

Buildings which play with the visual deception is a topic that has intrested me a lot after the comparision and understansting the way various architects represent architecture which is curcial theme in minimal architecture.

The two projects that struck me the most in this category were the

1. Aplix factory,nantes, france by Dominique Perrault
2. blur project,Arteplage Yverdon-les-bians of the swiss national exhibition 2002 by Diller+ Scofidio architects

Aplix factory,nantes, france by Dominique Perrault

dominique perrault in this project plays with the visual perception and revelation, with distortion and its correction.in this project which is a factory building, a modular structure build on a 'crossword puzzle grid' as he describes it, with facades of metal panels that like fresnel lenses refract and reflect their surroundings does not need a spectacular landscape as a frame.

 it is not designed for a specific site,it neither follows a definite typology nor makes any clear reference to the site.on the contrary it embodies the complex facets of meaning characterstic of such constantly changing industrial buildings in surroundings that themselves continously alter.what goes on inside remains completely mysterious.at the moment self-adherent fibre fabric and self supporting systems are manufactured there. but the facade, and the illusion it creates makes a person wonder.the vaguely shining sheet metal on the facade lets materiality of the factory blend into the surrounding landscape.'nature' is evoked as a blurred image

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOY8NV-bXy4



blur project,Arteplage Yverdon-les-bians of the swiss national exhibition 2002 by Diller+ Scofidio architects

In this project the visbilty of the structure and the way people perceive it was taken to a higher level. all the visual and acoustic references were erased on entering the mist that the structure created and the senses were blured.In contrast to the traditional pavillions at world exhibitions in which senses are flodded with images, sounds and information,in the interior of the blur there was literally nothing seen. the opposite approach with the minimal technical expenditure to create something so minimal yet spectacular was something that took my intrest in this project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WT5Lu1MKYs



The centerpiece pavilion of the the sixth swiss national exhibition is a suspended platform shrouded in a perpetual cloud of man - made fog, designed by architects elizabeth diller and ricardo scofidio. the cloud can host up to 400 visitors.

 The so called 'blur pavillion' is visible from afar. the building consists of a 60 x 100 x 20 - metre metal construction that sprays innumerable tiny drops of lake water from 31400 jets. the high-pressure spraying technology ensures that the fleeting sculpture will be visible in all weathers, rain or shine.

The high-pressure spraying is carried out by high-grade steel jets with tiny apertures only 120 microns in diameter, through which the water is forced at a pressure of 80 bars onto fine needlepoints directly above the apertures and atomised into innumerable tiny droplets 4 to 10 microns in diameter. the droplets are so small that most of them remain suspended in the air. if sufficient jets are installed in a specific volume, they saturate the air with moisture and create the effect of mist or, in this case, the effect known as the blur.

Modes of representation-transperency vs illusion

TRANSPERENCY

Acheiving the art of dynamic movement inside a strict grid and also using a transprent facade throughout the building and yet acheiving privacy in the places required is something that attracted me to this project by wiel arets.

 The concept of the building was implaning a alien elemnt in the existing sysyem of the city which is comparable to a virus entering a human body and causing changes in it.the extentention to the academy inserts itself into the existing ensemble at the same time creating a new urban space.

The building is made up of modular units, here the a simple basic principle creates a diversity of effects.the facades consist of glass blocks with different degree of transperency that are fitted into the concrete frame made of square bays, in addition at places horizontal windows are inserted.particularly with the artificial-lit interior of the academy corresponds with the city outside, making the process of movement,communication and work visible.

The architect states that " Architecture is therefore a membrane, a alabaster skin,at once opaque and transperent,meaningful and meaningless, real and unreal"









In the intreior of the academy is also marked by the openness and at the same time by the industrial overtones supplied by the materials concrete and glass. the circulation system is entirely based on communication. from a single entrance which leads to the different parts of the building that are connected with each other by a bridge.

ILLUSION

The arcadia lightwear builing done by sadar vuga arhitecti is the example i have taken to show the comparision between representation of transprency vs illusion in the representation of the architecture.

The ambivalant game of representation characterstics of a building for arcadia lightwear, a slovenian lighting planner and light fitting manufacturer is done well by the architect. instead of displaying its function outwardly with an effectively illuminated peice of architecture, the building presents itself with a deep, dark blue facade that draws the gaze into a black hole.

the showroom concealed behind in a certain sense acts outwardly as a 'hiding room'. only the building's recessed ground floor is covered with a shiny foil that at night reflects the light cast by the headlamps of the passing cars. that is to say, the buiding does not light up, it allows itself to be lit up. at the same time the architecture does not make this principle its sole concept. the offices and warehouse are not incorporated in the box oriented towards the rear and allows themselves to be recognised what they are. in contrast to the mainstream minimalism the architect is not primarily intrested in the creation of an aura around their architecture but in showing how such an aura is produced.

                              ground floor plan

       first floor plan

                             sections

                                                                site plan