Mippolito Article

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1/17MICHAEL IPPOLITO - ARTICLE V.5 - HUGH HYNES - VOLATILT

CURATING RESTLESSNESS

regulating landscapes of change


2/17

Landscapes change and evolve; force and resistance

working over time shape the land over time. The landscape

is always in movement and is always restless due to tecton-

ic shifts, the fluidity of geologic formations, soil types,

topography, and hydrology. Time, force, and resistance

RESTLESSNESS becomes a defining feature in the landscape.

We can see the evidence of this battle all around: one lo-

cal example is the Marin Headlands. The man-made objects

are now on the front lines of battle with the natural forc-

es. The buildings, bunkers, and roadways that once thrived

here are now in constant threat and are acting as anchors

of resistance to the deteriorating landscape.

Moreover this restlessness is implicated in man-made

interventions in landscape as the bunkers attest. Military

interventions in landscape engage the dynamic fields of

ballistics and geopolitics, and has as complex a history as

the geotechnical features of those landscapes. A visitor to

such sites inevitably encounters the evidence of this force

and resistance, a continually unfolding history.

The regulating agencies tasked with curating such his-

torically valuable sites face a dilemma: how does one pre-

serve a site that is subject to such intense volatility,

and which is so rapidly transformed? If nothing else, it

is a technical issue of how these topographies can be sta-

bilized but more importantly, it poses an architectural

dilemma of to what extent the curation of mechanisms of

restlessness themselves as an inextricable feature of the

landscape becomes critical. Furthermore, can something

like restlessness be curated, understanding that conven-

tional forms of preservation may be antithetical to the

very notion of restlessness?

abstract V.05 01.11.12

Michael Ippolito/ M.Arch Thesis/ Article V.05/ Fall 2011/ Advisor: Hugh Hynes 001


3/17

Thesis ArticleV.05

invasionmap-

1940

[1]Virilio,Paul.BunkerArcheology.NewYork:PrincetonArchitectural,2008

Michael Ippolito/ M.Arch Thesis/ Article V.05/ Fall 2011/ Advisor: Hugh Hynes

battery townsley

002

As the United

States completed its

expansion westward and

continued to industrial-

ize during the 1800s,

the government focusedon creating the United

States as one of the

worlds great mili-

tary powers. The Navy

was expanding to become an international force, while the

Army assumed accountability for the defense of the United

States coasts and ports. During this time President Cleve-

land established the Endicott Board in 1885 for the purpose

of modernizing defenses and fortifications. The new and

reinforced gun batteries that were built and upgraded are

known as Endicott batteries. The Endicott era of coastal

defenses lasted 50 years, with minor modification until the

end of World War II. The Endicott board defined San Fran-

cisco Harbor second to only New York Harbor as of strategic

importance. As a result, an extensive series of forts, bat-

teries, and guns were proposed as defense for San Francisco

Bay.

During the World War II era military technology and

airplanes played a major role in the way coastal defens-

es were designed. The threat from air prompted the Army

to make additions to the defense system, including small,rapid-fire anti-aircraft guns and camouflage. The exist-

ing batteries were covered with vegetation colored net-

ting because of their vulnerability to aerial bombing. Due

to the threat from the air the next, and last, generation

of seacoast guns were mounted under dense concrete shields

covered with foliage to make them almost undetectable fromabove. Paul Virilio in the book

Bunker Archeology states that

These concrete blocks were the

final throw-offs of the history of

frontiers, from the Roman limes tothe Great Wall of China. History

had changed course one final time

before jumping into the immensity

of aerial space[1].


4/17

fire on those ships and to be fired upon. No ships arrived

however, and the nature of modern warfare rendered the bun-

kers outdated.

The abandoned military base, Fort Cronkhite, is literally an

indicator of a former restlessness; it was at the time, a

contested site due to the threat of invasion from Japan. The

entire San Franicsco Bay area was restless due to the con-

tested nature of ballistics and geopolitics. Paul Virilio in

the book Bunker Archeology explains that, Defensive archi-

tecture is instrumental, existing less in itself than with

a view to doing something: waiting, watching, then act-

ing or, rather, reacting he goes on by writing The bunker

marks off a military space that of the last war game, a

game that all nations elaborated and perfected together in

the course of the last century. The bunker alerts us less of

yesterdays adversary than of todays and tomorrows war;risk everywhere, instantaneity of danger, the great mix of

military and civilian, the homogenization of conflict.[1]

Fort Cronkhite was at one time instrumental to the de-

fense of San Francisco Bay. It is now decommissioned and

outdated; it alerts us more of yesterdays adversary than

today and tomorrows risk. This decommissioned military base

is housed in one of the

most volatile sites in

the Marin Headlands be-

cause of the restless

landscape it sits upon.

The site is in a constant

state of change and vul-

nerable to the bed it was

placed in. It has lost

over ten bunkers and two

roads to the deteriorat-

ing landscape. Slow but

forceful landslides on

5,018 YARDS

8,771 YARDS

5,018 YARDS

11,019

YARDS

site map

There are approximately sev-

enty bunkers in the Marin Head-

lands. They are scattered along

the beaches, roads, and trails and

stumbled upon by hikers and day-

trippers. The visitors that stum-

ble upon these sites will stop to

contemplate about these monuments

of death. Outdated even as theywere being built, the bunkers are

monuments of danger and fear. Sol-

diers sat in the bunkers waiting

for ships to emerge on the hori-

zon, waiting to be given orders to

[1]Virilio,Paul.BunkerArcheology.NewYork:PrincetonArchitectural,2008


ballistics mappi


5/17

FIREUNITGB-1

0 20 40 60 80 100

135,440 SF

330%

INCREASEDISPLACED

LANDSCAPE

2009

DISPLACED LAND = CCA FOOTPRINT X16

the oceanside of the

hill are destroying the

buildings within the

fort. The landscape is in

constant flux and in turn

is forcing the build-

ings and roads to van-

ish within the landscape.

Construction of the baseon the hillside started

in the late 1930s and

completed in 1941. Since

then the military base

has gone through drastic

change. By 1987 40,944

square foot of land that

the decommissioned mili-

tary base sits upon has

been naturally displaced

due to tectonic shifts,

the fluidity of geologic

formations, soil types,

topography, and hydrol-

ogy. Landscapes change

and evolve; force and

resistance working over

time shape the landscape

over time. These natu-

ral forces now plague the

obsolete military struc-tures in the Marin Head-

lands. The bunkers are

now on the front lines of

battle with nature. The

buildings, bunkers, and

roads that once thrived

there are now in constant

threat and acting as anchors of resistance to the deterio-

rating landscape. Resistance and change are at work with-

in this area, the hardness of the build-

ing and the fluid adaptability of na-

ture. Thus meaning that the man-made

structures within the site are acting as

resistors to erosion but are slowly be-

ing consumed by the landscape.



6/17

roadw

ays

displaced

la

nd

buildings


LOSS OF LANDSCAPE - 16.3 %

6 YEAR CHANGE

- 56.5 %

9 YEAR CHANGE


6 YEAR CHANGE


9 YEAR CHANGE

LOSS OF LANDSCAPE - 5 %

9 YEAR CHANGE

0 20 40 60 80 100

REMAINING ROADWAY 32%

0 20 40 60 80 100

REMAINING STRUCTURES 28%

2

11

2

3

4

10

11

5

6 87 9

2

3

4

10

11

5

6 87 9

1

2

3

4

10

11

5

6 87 9

2

11

98

1

2

3

4

10

11

5

6 87 9


7/17Michael Ippolito/ M.Arch Thesis/ Article V.05/ Fall 2011/ Advisor: Hugh Hynes 006

Although no battle was ever fought here and no foreign army

has placed a foot on Fort Cronkhite it is in the process of

being destroyed by the natural processes. Its major adver-

sary, the landscape, has caused the decommissioned military

base to fall to ruins. The only battle being fought here

is the battle of time. Since 1987 there has been a 330% in-

crease in land that has been displaced and the morphed land-

scape has grown from 40,944 square feet to 135,440 squarefeet. This is equivalent to the sixteen times the footprint

of California College of the arts, San Francisco campus.

Architecture plays a role in ac-

tivating, moderating, and mediat-

ing forces of change within the

landscape. One such practice that

engages in this strategy of regu-

lation is Smout Allen Architec-

tural Design Research Practice.

Mark Smout and Laura Allen areSenior Lecturers at the Bartlett

School of Architecture, UCL. They

focus on the dynamic relationship

between the natural and the man

made and how this can be revealed

to enhance the experience of the

Architecture plays a role in activating, moderating, and

mediating forces of change within the landscape. One such

practice that engages in this strategy of regulation is

Smout Allen Architectural Design Research Practice. MarkSmout and Laura Allen are Senior Lecturers at the Bartlett

School of Architecture, UCL. They focus on the dynamic re-

lationship between the natural and the man made and how

this can be revealed to enhance the experience of the ar-

chitectural landscape. They explain that, The natural

landscape has taken on an artificial patination. Alien ma-

terials interrupt the processes of growth and decay. New

and evolving features created by man are, to an extent ab-

sorbed by the fluid and yielding nature of our surroundings

and what results is a hybrid environment.[1]

A visitor to such sites inevitably encoun-ters the evidence of this force and resis-

tance, a continually unfolding history.

One can think of the site as a museum of

restlessness and illustrate the change of

the objects over time. One would be able to

visit the site tomorrow and see one thing

and come back later and see the same object

in a completely different state. This un-

folding history is of major cultural sig-

hybrid environment

retreating villagesmout allen

fort cronkhite

[1]Smout,Mark,andLauraAllen.AugmentedLandscapes.NewYork:PrincetonArchitectural,2007


8/17007Michael Ippolito/ M.Arch Thesis/ Article V.05/ Fall 2011/ Advisor: Hugh Hynes

nificance; it is located adjacent

to two densely populated areas, San

Francisco and Sausalito.

This site can be a testing ground for

a new architecture not to fortify but

to embrace the change. The new archi-

tecture can have aspects of silent

witness, romanticism, and fertiliza-

tion. Communication with the observerand or transmission of a message is a

central goal when it comes to high-

lighting the history of a place and

or object, the current state of theobject, and future state of the object. We can use the

past, present, and future as parameters to design around

to create an architecture that will highlight the histori-

cal man-made objects set within this restless landscape;

its original state of being, the state of deterioration it

is in, and state of deterioration it will be in-in the fu-

ture. Architecture plays a decisive role in the context of

the exhibit. It sets the stage; ideally, it can correspond

to the content of restlessness. Each exhibition places the

objects on display in a new context and thus reinterprets

them. The mode of presentation significantly influences its

message, whether the object is a battery, bunker, or road-

way

The goal of this project is to not merely highlight the ex-

isting historical man-made objects within the landscape but

to embrace the change over time. A variety of mechanisms

will emphasize the experiential factors of the site overtime such as architecture as a mechanism that is responsive

to specific site conditions like tectonic movement, ero-

sion, and watershed. The hikers and day-trippers that visit

Fort Cronkhite are able to experience this unfolding his-

tory first hand through the architectural mechanisms. Also,

a series of architectural programs will be emplaced within

the site such as educational and scientific (research) fa-

cilities where the study

of archaeology, geotech-

nology, environmental,

and botany can occur.

Last but not least a

platform for recreation-

al uses will be designed

to support activities

such as site seeing,

hiking, picnicking, and

exercising.

sausalito

fort cronkhite

san francisco

exhibits


9/17Michael Ippolito/ M.Arch Thesis/ Article V.05/ Fall 2011/ Advisor: Hugh Hynes

1990

2000

2010

2020

3-0

10-0

12-0

8-0

selfb

urial

008

2010

one

stage

2012

2015

two

stage

three

stage

The regulating agen-

cies tasked with curat-

ing such historically

valuable sites face a

dilemma: how does one

preserve a site that is

subject to such intense

volatility, and which

is so rapidly trans-formed? If nothing else,

it is a technical issue

of how these topogra-

phies can be stabilized

but more importantly,

it poses an architec-

tural dilemma of to what

which is so rapidly

transformed? If noth-

ing else, it is a

technical issue of how

these topographies can

be stabilized but more

importantly, it poses

an architectural di-

lemma of to what ex-

tent the curation of

mechanisms of rest-lessness themselves,

as an inextricable

feature of the land-

scape, become criti-

cal. Can something

like restlessness be

curated, understanding that conventional forms of preser-

vation may be antithetical to the very notion of restless-

ness?

Curating certain conditions within the site through the use

of mechanisms of architecture can also enhance or paralyze

this restlessness by speeding up the erosion or slowing it

down. Time is the best way to preserve the decommissioned

military site and the best way to slow the speed of the

moving terrain is to cause friction within it by utilizing

methods of geotechnology.

The regulating agencies tasked with curating such histori-

cally valuable sites face a dilemma: how does one preserve

a site that is subject to such intense volatility, and

mechanism that changes over ti



Geotechnics is a branch of civil engineering that embrac-

es the field of geology and concerned with the modifica-

tion and movement of soil and rocks and directly linked to

the natural movement of landscape. This also includes the

prediction, prevention, or mitigation of damage caused by

natural hazards such as mudflows, landslides, rockslides,

sinkholes, and the application of soil, rock and ground

water mechanics. As of now, the existing buildings placed

within the landscape at Fort Cronkhite are defenselessagainst the fluid terrain.

There are three major

typologies of build-

ings that exist within

Fort Cronkhite, the

abandoned military

buildings placed above

grade, bunkers built

partially below grade,

and roadways placed atgrade. The three typol-

ogies have been decom-

missioned and have not

acquired maintenance

for over forty years,

they are now falling

prey to the natural el-ements. Through observation the three typologies are acted

upon in similar but different ways. The structures that are

built at grade are acted on differently than the buildings

built into the land.Through a series of ex-

periments the Buildings

go through five major

stages of transforma-

tion during its life-

time. During stage one

the building works as it

was designed to. During

stage two the building

is forced to act differ-

ently than its intended

use. Through the second

stage slight displacementThrough a series of experiments the Buildings go through

five major stages of transformation during its lifetime.

During stage one the building works as it was designed

to. During stage two the building is forced to act dif-

ferently than its intended use. Through the second stage

slight displacement of land occurs creating the building

to slightly cantilever. Stage three consists of more dis-

GRAVITYWALL

ANCHOREDWALL

COUNTERWALL

EARTH-FILLWALL

PILINGWALL

CANTILEVERWALL

geotechnics[ge.o.tech.nics]

[solid]

STRATEGIESOFCONTROL

TIER 1 TIER 2 TIER 3 TIER 4 TIE

TIER 1 TIER 2 TIER 3 TIER 4 TIE

TYPO

LOGY

2

TYPOLOGY

1



placement of land allowing the building to cantilever and

tilt towards self-destruction. For the duration of step

four more land is displaced causing the foundation of the

building to fail and force the building to slip off of the

cliff edge. During stage five the building is no longer in

the same location but instead naturally settling into the

landscape.

sand-experiment

SPEED BUMPS TO EROSION

1 2 3

4 5 6

A second typology of building the bunker is semi covered

by the natural landscape. These structures also fail from

natural processes but in a dissimilar way. This phenome-

non occurs because the majority of the building is already

submerged into the landscape and goes through a distinct

process of movement due to the restlessness of the site.

Throughout the first stage it sits within the site as it

was intended to with all of the walls submerged except

one exposed faade that is open to the elements. During

the second stage the soil is displaced above the bunker

while forces are acting on the bunker from below causing aslight burial of the bunker. During the third stage more

soil above the bunker is displaced while forces are act-

ing on the bunker from below causing the bunker to be bur-

ied deeper into the landscape and allowing only a sliver

of the once exposed faade to be seen. During the fourth

stage the bunker becomes completely submerged within the

landscape and finally during the fifth stage a sliver of

the back end of the bunker reemerges.Although these buildings are being acted upon by the land-

scape they also force the landscape to react around them

as well thus creating a manmade earth blockage. The shapeand the depth of the subject determines the amount of


12/17

linear

retai

nment


retainment map

time it takes for the natu-

ral landscape to move around or

through them. Most of the man-

made objects in Marin Headlands

are solid concrete structures

that slow the process of erosion

but do not stop it. The land is

forced into the back end of the

object and slowly moves aroundthe sides of the object. By

placing an object in the land-

scape it forces other processes

to react to them. We can think

of the deteriorating buildings in the Marin headlands as

speed bumps to displacement of land. The use of mapping

has led to the discovery of the way in which the landscape

has been moving and how the buildings have been acting as

anchors to the landscape in certain conditions through-

out time. Mapping has provided an illustration of how each

typology forces the landscape to maneuver around the man-

made object. The two major typologies of building that

impact the speed in which the landscape is moving are the

point (building or bunker) and the line (roadway). I am

defining points as buildings built at grade such as pre-

cautionary units (command posts and transmission posts),

firing units (bunkers built below grade), and observation

units (observation posts built below grade) and defining a

line as a roadway. Through various mapping exercises the

point illustrates that it can retain a larger amount of

land in small area than the line. This usually occurs be-cause the point is anchored deeper into the terrain while

the line rests on top of the landscape.

structural failure

retaining wall



soils

marinh

eadlands

The mapping of the soil patterns on the site also illus-

trate that the typologies of building retain land geomet-

rically in an inverse way from each other. The point re-

tains the land in a triangular shape thus being the bottom

point of a triangle while the line acts bottom sides of

the triangle if flipped upside down.

A building built at grade; such as the Precautionary unit

(command posts and transmission posts, dressing, sta-

tion, munitions, power plants, transformers) is a build-

ing that houses the supply for a response for support of

a contested territory. It is no longer in use but we can

utilize this idea of preparation to a response and design

mechanisms that will be engineered for a specific kind

of response to the restlessness of the landscape. These

precautionary buildings have a minimum footprint on the

landscape. They are not built deep into the terrain and

because of this has less of an impact on the land. The

firing units (under armored cupolas: housed machine guns,

mine throwers, and grenade throwers) and observation units

on the other hand retain much more land than the precau-tionary units because they are anchored deeper into the

terrain. The roadways on the site also retain the land but

are much more temporal

than the precaution-

ary units and the fir-

ing units because of its

placement on top of the

landscape rather than

anchored within it.

SITE

BEACHES

WATER

HYDRAQUENT

XEROTHENTS/FILL

SIRDRAK SAND

RODEO CLAY

BARNABE COMPLEX

GRAVELLY LOAM

BONNYDOON

XERORTHENTS

xerorthents50-75% slope

weight distribution vulnerable to erosion

more orange = areas most vulnerable to erosionmore orange = places of strongest retention



geologic

formations

MOST STABLE LEAST STABLE

chert greenstone surficial melange

The stronger the geolog-

ic formation determines

the permanence of site,

meaning the stronger the

rock type the less sus-

ceptible it is to rest-

lessness. There are four

different categories of

rock that are located onthe Westside of the Marin

Headlands Mlange, Green-

stone, chert, and surfi-

cial deposits. In geol-

ogy, mlange typically

consists of a jumble of

large blocks. Large m-langes formed in active continental margin settings gen-

erally consist of altered oceanic crustal material and

blocks of continental slope sediments in a sheared mud-

stone matrix. Some larger blocks of rock may be large as

1 kilometer across. Smaller-scale localized mlanges may

also occur in shear or fault zones, where coherent rock

has been disrupted and mixed by shearing forces. Overall

mlange is a soft rock that is prone to deterioration.

This rock is the most prevalent type of rock located on

the Westside of the Marin Headlands.

Greenstone is a tough, dark altered basaltic rock that

once was solid deep-sea lava. It belongs to the green-

schist regional metamorphic facies. Greenschist is a

schist that forms by regional metamorphism under con-ditions of high pressure and fairly low temperature.In

greenstone, the olivine and peridotite that made up the

fresh basalt have been metamorphosed by high pressure and

warm fluids into green mineralsepidote, actinolite or

chlorite. Rock of this kind is made in subduction zones

and is seldom brought to the surface unchanged. The dy-

namics of the Californian coastal region make it one such

place. Greenstone belts are very common in Earths old-

est rocks, of Archean age.

There is only a small

amount of greenstone onthe site and it is located

near on the lowest part of

the site near the beach

and does not have much of

an impact if any on the

buildings, bunkers, or

roads.

mlange



WATERSHED

xerorthents50-75% slope

The watershed also plays an

important role to the rest-

lessness on the site. The wa-

ter flows from the top of the

site weakening the geologic

formations and allowing these

formations of rock to become

vulnerable to collapse. While

visiting the site one will comeacross bunkers hanging or sink-

ing and collapsed roadways that

have moved across the site due

to the movement of water that

has displaced the land forces

the buildings and roadways to

follow.

Topography is also an important factor when defining rest-

lessness within the landscape. The site has an eight hun-

dred and fifty foot change in elevation from the bottom ofthe site to the top of the site. That is equivalent to

height of the Transamerica Building in downtown San Fran-

cisco. The terrain changes drastically within the site.

Parts of the site are semi-flat while other parts are very

steep with cliff edges. Due to the geologic, soil, and wa-

tershed formations the steepest terrain is most vulnerable

to restlessness or in other words deterioration of site.

There are eight deteriorating buildings located on cliff

edges. We can define these edge conditions as the marginal

territory where the man-made objects are most prone to ob-

jective change in a shorter amount of time.

0

200

400

0

200

400

600

800

transamerica pyramidlongitudinal section

cross section transamerica pyramid



The Marin Headlands is a place where time; force, and re-

sistance are always at work creating a restlessness that

defines the landscape. The landscape is always in a stateof evolution and force and resistance are working over time

to shape and define the land. Built due to the threat of

invasion and derived to defend the Bay Area, Fort Cronkh-

ite, is in a contemporary state of ruin and falling prey

to the fluid landscape. This site can be a testing ground

for a new architecture not to fortify but to embrace the

change. The new architecture can have aspects of silent

witness, romanticism, and fertilization.

How does one preserve a site that is subject to such in-

tense volatility, and which is so rapidly transformed? If

nothing else, it is a technical issue of how these topog-

raphies can be stabilized but more importantly, it poses

an architectural dilemma of to what extent the curation of

mechanisms of restlessness themselves as an inextricable

feature of the landscape becomes critical. Furthermore,

can something like restlessness be curated, understanding

that conventional forms of preservation may be antithetical

to the very notion of restlessness?

CONCLUSIONV.05


17/17

CURATING RESTLESSNESS

REGULATING LANDSCAPES OF CHANGE

Books:

DeLanda, Manuel. War in the Age of Intelligent Machines. New York, NY: Zone, 2003.

Smout, Mark, and Laura Allen. Augmented Landscapes. New York: Princeton Architec-tural, 2007. Print.

Virilio, Paul. Bunker Archeology. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2008. Print.

Schittich, Christian. Exhibitions and Displays: Museum Design Concepts, Brand Presenta-tion, rade Show Design. Basel: Birkhuser Verlag AG, 2009. Print.

Corner, James. Te Agency of Mapping. Print.

Internet:

blooming Landscape, Deep Surface Mammoth // Building Nothing out of Something.Mammoth // Building Nothing out of Something. 26 Feb. 2010. Web. 03 Sept. 2011..

Retreating Village, Happisburgh. Smout Allen Architectural Design Research Practice.Web. 03 Sept. 2011. .

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/03/31/novel-technique-reveals-how-glaciers-sculpt-ed-their-valleys/

BIBLIOGRAPHYV.05

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Mippolito Article