Constructive Slippages A Thesis

Anastasia Laurenzi

to make layers,as if they were a steadiness of days

or to render time and stand outsidethe horizontal rush of it, for a momentto have the sensation of standing outsidethe greenish rush of it

some vertical gesture then, the way that angeror despair can rip a life apart

some wound of color

-Robert Haas

CONTENTS

Thesis statement

Abstract Definitions

A Study of Five Precedents

A Study of Passing Through

Overlaps in Red

The Narrative

Constructed Digital

A Love Of Beginnings Degree Project Probe FilmA Film Of The Back And Forthing [in the corridor to stair]

A shift in perspective (a back and forth-ing) actuates the in-between, the place where I stand,the blind spot of the construction. To be in the place where intention leads, a present progression,a looking back presents a new past (future). To look back is to look to. As these overlaps occur, there is an all-at-once which is recognized.

A place, upon crossing a threshold, opens/closes.A threshold [any place or point of entering or beginning] is not just an entry from light to dark(fullness to void) but a constructed experience (a crossing over).But how to construct a threshold, a space of memory that negotiates the self...

Intention in perspective is the coming from and going to. It is the relationship of a subject to aspects of itself and to others as a whole - a simultaneous unfolding and becoming.By depicting spatial relationships on a flat surface through perspective - in the movement throughthe perceiver constructs the space. The crossing of this threshold is different for each person.No two feel or see the same thing-a wrinkle.

In this active perception, memory guides perspective. It blurs as a long exposure.With the body as scale and intention to construct the space in a shifting through time,this would change how the threshold is crossed, how light moves through, bringing memory to solidity.

In the looking back, reflection finishes, completes. The flattening of past to future not only projects the present, but the revealed is opened. In an orthographic way it allows the understanding of the photographic to move into the space constructed.To search for the other (to explore the intention) is to know one’s place.

As if an understanding of two islands...to stand on one and look to the other is the realization of coming from and going to - disorientation/[re]orientation.

To understand looking back without touching the other -in this the knowing of one’s place is revealed.

a wrinkle - the diagonal

To search for the other is to know one’s place.

back and forth

In the overlap, the in-between is found. The empty unknown - the blindspot.

The place where I stand.

To see in a new way.

The all-at-once.

Constructive Slippages

Memorya [re]collectionto retain and revive [facts]

to memorize - to commit to writing, a mental collection

Perceptionthe act of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind, an understanding, insight, intuition, discernmenta taking

to perceive is to obtain or to gatherto take entirely

Thresholdthe entrance or beginning point of somethingthe point at which a stimulus is just strong enough to be perceived or produce a response

Wrinklea line or crease formed by shrinking or contraction of a smooth substance

a clever trick

Perspectivethe state of existing in space before the eyeto perceive things in their actual interrelations or comparative importance

the state of one’s ideas

Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, 1988

The difference of living between the walls and inside the wall. The open space is a created residual of the placement of the walls.

Aires MateusHouse in Brejos de Azeitao, Sutbal, Portugal

A stair to an opening above reveals one’s place.

Aldo RossiMonument to the Resistance at Cuneo

Diller + ScofidioSlow House

The house as threshold. A passage that does not promise the return but focuses more on the in and through. The only looking back is the monitor at the picture window out - to show you where you are not. (The mirror between the door and the window.)

A Study Of Five PrecedentsNew Diagrams in Red

Site Determines Movement

The idea of the bridge as a middle, a mediator, a connection, and an in-between of the places coming from and going to. In the crossover, an open space is created as the inside of the two towers.

Aldo RossiBridge at Bellinzona

A Turning Inside-Out (like a sleeve).

The site is reflected to the community. The idea of self is projected out and seen through various perspectives of the city.

Kazuyo Sejima & AssociatesPolice Box at Chofu Station

To Live Between Two Walls.

The private space “floats” above, while the walls and ceiling do not touch.

To begin the initial investigation, a camera obscura was constructed. The place of site is a corridor and the stair it leads to in the school of architecture. In the ‘looking to’, the perspective seen through a constructed camera obscura is drawn. Then, turning to the place of ‘coming from’, the perspective seen is recorded onto the first drawing. From these drawings, the plan is redrawn to include both perspectives as one. Where you are going changes where you came from.

In constructing the drawing from paper for the first time, using the drawing as a template, the walls in three dimensions are in the oblique. This begins a new understanding of spatial construction and the meaning of its consequences. The construction of the drawing on paper brings the two dimensional into a physical three dimensions. However, it is still a drawing. With this construction, there is the ability to turn the oblique and see the other side.

With these investigations, a construction begins to look at the relationship of plan to section.A study of transparency through thickness of space.

A thickness in terms of density; density as exposure; exposure as duration of light.Light as a material. In its materiality, light plays with opaqueness, translucency, and transparency. What are the consequences of each?

A Study Of Passing Through

The model of corridor to stair sits on a rotating plate that is attached to an arm that attaches to the wall and also rotates. This allows movement of the construction to reference the drawings on either side and to understand the changing of light throughout from inside to outside. The rotation of the arm from the wall also refers to the rotation on paper of plan to elevation to oblique to plan again, and new perspectives are created.

Looking Back

Overlaps in RedNew plan over Old in Corridor and Stair

Wall Diagrams

Through the conncection of plan to elevation, a new wall in the oblique is drawn.

Again, in the oblique, the space between is drawn and a folding of the new wall reveals an opening.

By treating the elevation (a doubling of its scale) as section and cut through itself, the diagonaal appears and is drawn to become the director of the new looking to.

Looking To

Looking Back

Back and Forth

Looking To

Overlaps in RedCones of Vision

The Narrative

As one begins to pass through the corridor, it slowly rises vertically along with the horizontal movement. Along one side is a translucent wall and on the other is a wall that is opaque. With each step, light and shadow pass through as a momentary glimpse of the outside reveals that there is something beyond. A translucent wall cuts the corridor. What has been seen is out of reach. The only way to progress is to turn away.

In this splitting, the view is of above and/or below but not ahead. Only when the stair ends does the place of going to come into view [from above now looking down]. This is the place where one came from. The place[ment] has changed and the once-was (looking back) is now a place of looking to. There has been a rotation to meet the diagonal of the past progression. In this transition through time, movement through the walls reflects a shift in memory as intention changes perception.

The corridor now becomes stair and leads up along an opaque wall. Along the other side, the wall is translucent and emerges to prohibit the view of the rest of the stair but allows light and shadow again to give the understanding of the other side. At the edge of this ‘between-wall’, a sharp turn (in the diagonal cast of the section) leads up and through a breaking of the wall in two.

The wall, given its worth through the study of time,is absolved of the burden of its history.

The opening of the walldetermines the space in-between.

The projection of an open space, a once-stair,receives this burden and it is dissolved-a remission.

Anastasia Laurenzi | MArch, Rhode Island School of Design | 2009