“Life cycle and the impermanence of the corporeal fragments”

Victor M. Serrano

“...Thus there is a visible continuity that creates the image of the city that seems to be lasting and not even needing to change, while the inner workings are always subject to change to its most immediate needs; it is the changeability of the city, that gives it its permanence...” (Koolhaas, 1995)

The body is comprised of physical parts and of spiritual nature both working together to achieve presence. To be present is to exist in a moment and to be affected by time. There is an intrinsic relationship between the body of a living being and the body of a building exempli-fied in the cycle of birth and decay as one can see in the linkage between the skeleton, the skin and the soul of a human body and the structure, materials and the “Genius Loci”(1), spirit of the place, in a building. When studying the life of an edifice one must understand the concept of duration(2) from birth, through growth and decay, death and finally, preservation of memory. In this sense, duration can be understood as a kind of story where there are surviv-ing pieces of the past coexisting in the present. Therefore, defining the concept of life-cycle in terms of birth, growth, decay and memory preservation, is crucial to comprehend the idea of duration in the life of the edifice.

“Without this survival of the past into the present there would be no duration, but only instantaneity.” (Bergson, 2007)

One can say that Architectural representation is another fragment of the building and that it represents its “Sempiternal quality”(3), an existence within time continuing infinitely into the future. In other words, sempiternity can be described as an eternity that has a beginning. The building has a beginning in the form of drawing and as it continues to be erected this drawing will reflect the changes and also the possible new forms that the structure can become. In her dissertation Federica Goffi states that:

“A sempiternal building is the result of multiple authorship, understood as a collage work, where a known beginning has many possible endings”.

She also argues that,

“Drawing, in its role of twinned body, lives within an analogous temporal dimension, constantly renewing itself, and being implicitly unfinished, allowing for the imagination to develop through it”.(Goffi, 2010)

This idea of drawing proposes that all layers of history can be read simultaneously allowing its unfinished quasi-eternal image to influence the construction. This paper proposes that Architecture undergoes a continuous process of physical and spiritual adaptation in order for its life to continue. The building of the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital (HKSH) will be taken as a case study for it carries these ideas within its function and also in the history of decay and renewal of its corporeal fragments.

The Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital (Figure 1) , formerly “The Yeung Wo Nursing Home”, was conceived as a private institution where patients could be treated by their own doctors in a quiet environment.(4) The HKSH was built on a terrain previously occupied by an amusement center by the name of “The happy retreat” and it is this site where the argument of life and death will also be rooted. The word “Sanatorium” is derived from the Latin, “sanare” or, to heal. It is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis (TB) before antibiotics.(5) This new type of building was born to function as a space to alleviate the ill and in the same way the remaining fragments of the devastated “Happy Retreat” were re-used into the now Hospital as a kind of healing action. In the year 1922 these 2 structures became the first body of the HKSH and they would undergo a series of transformations key to the building’s duration. The first notable alteration happened in 1925 when the sloped side of the site collapsed replacing the spaces in the wards with rocks and mud. The body suffered significant damage and parts of it were replaced with new materials reminiscent of the ones destroyed. This first alteration by way of replacement of dead parts is an example of a physical transformation of corporeal fragments.

Another important relationship exists in between the typology of the building and its body which gives the building a symbolic continuity despite physical changes. One can say that the type of the building represents the hospital as an institution and as long as the symbolic relev-ance is maintained the transformations of the body are intelligible. This idea is evident in “The King’s Two Bodies”(6) where the indivisible relation between spirit and body allows for the continuity of the Kingdom.

Figure 1

The addition of the Central Block (Figure 2) to the Hospital in 1932 demonstrates how the physical presence of the building is linked to the spiritual image yet to overcome another transformation. In 1935 the place was named Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital and its image of healing continued to live along with its developing body. While the external appear-ance of the body continues to change one must make a distinction of the organs that give life to the body. These inner workings allow for blood to flow, oxygen to exchange and tissue to grow. These similarities between the human body and the building can be seen in the interior elements of the edifice where changes in space planning allow for the building to continue liv-ing in an otherwise obsolete body. An example of this can be appreciated when various de-partments such as the Pharmacy, the Operating Theatre, the Outpatient department, Mater-nity Department, a Clinical Laboratory and the department of Radiology begin to occupy the HKSH over a period of eight years from 1926 to 1934 and the re-structuring of the ground level in 1931. From 1937 until 1945 the Sino-Japanese war affected the normal operation of the hospital. After the war ended efforts to restore the damaged structure began and thus a re-establishment of the inner workings. After reconstructing the damaged areas of the buildings the expansion process continued to accommodate new hospital activities. In the online public-ation: “Background of Hospital 1922-2007” it is written that

“... it is no exaggeration to say that except for the war years, hardly a month went by without some hospital expansion and improvement.”(7) (Hospital)

Figure 2

This constant state of change is evidence of the sempiternal nature of the building. Some of the additions consisted of the new right wing of the central block in 1947 and the Li Shu Fan Block (Figure-3) built also in fragments from 1956 to 1967. The south wing exhibited 8 levels and it can be considered yet another part of the growing hospital body. One must constantly re-visit the reorganization of the interior spaces in order to experience the relationship between corporeal fragments and spiritual presence. For example, the newly constructed area of the Li Shu Fan block would house the clinical laboratory, neonatal intensive care unit, the physiotherapy department and the histopathology unit moved from a different part of the building. Later, additional functions were included such as the microfilming department for record keeping in 1985. This idea of unfolding spaces is presented in the concept of Sempi-ternity previously introduced. Goffi says, “Buildings do not become sempiternal, achieving quasi-eternal existence, by being preserved, but rather through a constant re-generation process.” (Goffi, 2010) In her argument she effectively communicates the relationship between change and presence outlining the relevance of drawing as a material fragment of the building itself. One can translate these ideas directly to the case study to uncover the various stages in the life of the building.

Figure 3

Throughout the duration of the building the body not only reflects weathering but also reacts to the social context and the technological advancements. In response to some of these new hospital requirements another fragment was added to the back of the central block to house mechanical and electrical systems. These systems would ensure continuity in the internal at-mosphere of the hospital regardless of immediate changes in the exterior environment. There-fore, the passing away of the building can be defined by the collapse of the physical structure and by the ending of a specific functionality.

In 1988 the first fragment described as the original hospital building was demolished and re-placed by a new body, Li Shu Pui block (Figure-4). This new 19 storey building was physically connected to both the Li Shu Fan block which, was at the time subjected to interior renova-tions, and to the Central block. The impermanence of the corporeal fragments is clearly demonstrated by this process of substitution where the general image of the hospital remains intact despite the replacement of its parts. The continuous need for improvement of functions leads to the creation of new spaces within the existing envelope as seen in the creation of the isolation unit which, responded to the epidemic disease, a social element influencing the building’s development. Another replacement of the physical body took place in 1998 when the old buildings adjacent to the Li SHu Piu block were demolished to give birth to the second phase and expansion which, once again cause the internal spaces to shift in order to accom-modate the new functions.

Figure 4

The phase I of the Li Shu Pui Block development will act as the conclusion of this study pur-posely excluding the latest two phases as the argument attempts to illustrate the idea of a building as a body in constant change and unfinished. After studying the duration in the life-cycle of the HKSH one can take a stand regarding the action to be taken upon the death of its architecture. One option is to completely demolish the building which signifies the erasure of history. On the other hand, one can fully restore the edifice to its original state which stops and binds the life of the building to a particular moment in time. Finally, by understanding the life as duration and accepting the impermanence of the corporeal fragments one can allow the building to change over time and become sempiternal.

“It is with our entire past ... that we desire, will and act ... from this survival of the past it follows that consciousness cannot go through the same state twice. The circumstances may still be the same, but they will act no longer on the same person ... that is why our duration is irreversible”.(8)

In his writings Henri Bergson illustrates how duration implies the conservation of the past, not by experiencing the same but by adding new moments to the old. In this sense Architec-tural Conservation must preserve memory while allowing for new instances to be added to the life of the building. The HKSH is a vivid example of this life cycle. It was born from the frag-ments of a body in decay, as it aged new parts replaced dead portions of the edifice and it was re-born by way of planning and by way of building. To plan is to think and drawing is a way of visualizing imagination. This ideation is present in the latest stage of the HKSH where a 30 storey structure was designed but, only 17 storeys were initially constructed. On contemplat-ing life from this standpoint one can simultaneously look into the past, where drawing shows the possible forms that the building could have taken, understand the present shape of the body and devise the future. (Figure 5) As existence continues, pieces are bound together by the duration of the story and this writing, in an attempt to achieve presence becomes yet an-other fragment of the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital body, and as such, it should be rendered unfinished…

Citations:

1. Christian Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture Rizzoli, New York. 1980.

2. Bergson, Henri. The Creative Mind, An Introduction to Metaphysics. Basingstoke, Englandl (2007)

3. “Sempiternity, an eternity with a beginning, is a cosmological time-dimension, which implies that identity perdures through constant change.” The Sempiternal Nature of Architectural Conservation and the Unfinished Building and Drawing. Federica Goffi. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. February 19th 2010 Alexandria, Virginia.4. Background of hospital (1922-2007). http://www.hksh.com/en/about/history.html5. Merriam-Webster, Britanica Encyclopedia.

6. The King's Two Bodies:. A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology. Ernst H. Kantorowicz. One of Princeton University Press's Notable Ce n tenary Titles. With a new preface by William Chester Jordan.

7. Background of hospital. History Chapter 4 (1922-2007), pp. 43. http://www.hksh.com/en/about/history.html8. Henri Louis BergsonCreative Evolution (1911), trans. Arthur Mitchell, 6. Science quotes on: | Evolution (300)

References:

BergsonHenri. (1998). Creative Evolution. Dover Publications.

BergsonHenri. (2007). The Creative Mind, An Introduction to Metaphysics. Citadel (September 19, 1997). England: Basingstoke.

Encyclopedia. (無日期). 2012年March月 15日擷取自 Merriam Webster: www.merriam-webster.com

GoffiFederica. (2010). The Sempiternal Nature of Architectural Conservation and the Unfinished Building and Drawing. Alexandria, Virginia: Virginia Polythecnic Institute and State University.

HospitalKong Sanatorium andHong. (無日期). History. 2012年March月 15日擷取自 Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital Wbsite: http://www.hksh.com/en/about/history.html

KantorowiczHErnst. (1997). The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology. Princeton University Press.

KoolhaasRem. (1995). Elegy for the Vacant Lot. 於 KoolhaasRem, S, M, L, XL. New York: Monacelli Press.

Norberg-SchulzChristian. (1980). Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli.

List of figures:

Figure 1:

Historical photograph of the “Old Block” in the 1920's. (http://www.hksh.com/en/about/history.html)

Figure 2:

Historical photograph of the Central Block. (http://www.hksh.com/en/about/history.html)

Figure 3:

Historical photograph of the Li Shu Fan Block. (http://www.hksh.com/en/about/history.html)

Figure 4:

Historical photograph of the Li Shu Pui Block. (http://www.hksh.com/en/about/history.html)

Figure 5:

Photographic and drawing collage showing the various fragments of the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital. (Victor M. Serrano 2012. )